Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

Pocket Possibilities:
‘Freespace’ in Community
A tool for applying principles of Byera Hadley
‘Freespace 2018’ to designing with Travelling Scholarships
Australian minority communities. Journal Series
Anna Ewald-Rice 2020

1
Registration
Architects

Board
NSW

A
 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

Pocket Possibilities:
‘Freespace’
in Community

A tool for applying

principles of ‘Freespace
2018’ to designing with
Registration
Australian minority
communities.
Architects

2 3
Board
NSW

A A shifting journey
The Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series is a
select library of research compiled by more than 160 architects,
towards unforeseen
students and graduates since 1951, and made possible by the
generous gift of Sydney Architect and educator, Byera Hadley.
outcomes.
Byera Hadley, born in 1872, was a distinguished architect
responsible for the design and execution of a number of fine
buildings in New South Wales.

He was dedicated to architectural education, both as a part-time

teacher in architectural drawing at the Sydney Technical College,
and culminating in his appointment in 1914 as Lecturer-in-Charge
at the College’s Department of Architecture. Under his guidance,
the College became acknowledged as one of the finest schools
of architecture in the British Empire. 1. Intro 1 5. Findings Seen And Unforeseen 55
Aims And Outcomes 2 How The Pocketguide Shaped Up 56
Byera Hadley made provision in his will for a bequest to enable Stories 4 Project Findings 58
graduates of architecture from a university in NSW to travel in 2. A Pocketguide Takes Shape 8 6. New Outcomes New Settings 63
order to broaden their experience in architecture, with a view to
Significance Of The Venice Biennale 10 USYD - Design Studio 65
advancing architecture upon their return to Australia.
Venice Experiences 11 Stanford Conference 66
Today, the Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship fund is managed Global Framework Of Projects 11 AMAGA Conference 67
by Perpetual as Trustee, in conjunction with the NSW Architects Applying Freespace 13 PNYX article 68
Registration Board. Emerging Ethical Questions 15 In The Workplace 68
Legislation, History And Practice 17 Reconciliation action Plan 69
For more information on Byera Hadley, and the Byera Hadley
Travelling Scholarships go to www.architects.nsw.gov.au or get 3. An Emerging Pocketguide 19 AASA Indigenous Resource Portfolio 69
in contact with the NSW Architects Registration Board at: The Brief For The Pocketguide 20 Conclusion 70
Anna Ewald-Rice was awarded Level 2, 156 Gloucester Street, Sydney NSW 2000. The Pocketguide In Pictures 21 7. Appendix 73
the Byera Hadley Travelling
Scholarship in 2018 Project Synergies 23 1. ‘Burri Gummin: One Fire’ 74
You can also follow us on Twitter at:
Cover image: A flooded St 4. In Community 25 2. ‘Narrative, Self and Engagement’ 90
www.twitter.com/ArchInsights
Mark’s Square overlaid on a Each Place Is Different 26 3/4. ‘Beyond The Functional’ 100
massive dried desert ant hill The Board acknowledges that all text, images and diagrams Tennant Creek 28 5/6. ‘How To’ and ‘Pocketguide’ 104
form the two environmental contained in this publication are those of the author unless Yuendumu 36 8. Acknowledgments 126
extremes between which this otherwise noted.
project sits. Balgo 42 9. About the Author 126
Photos by Anna Ewald-Rice Warmun 48 10. References 127
© NSW Architects Registration Board 2020

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

With deepest respect

I acknowledge the first nations 1
of this Country, the original
custodians of this land I NTRODUCTI ON
who’s sovereignty
has never been ceded:
elders past, present and future
with embedded knowledge
and lived experience
4
in their ways of knowing.
I write with gratitude for what is shared
and in respectful humility
listen, learn and strive for
sustainable existence.
I do not claim to be an expert.
I understand the ethics
of writing on indigeneity,
that my position is one
of an Anglo-Australian
that is a part of a system
still centered in colonial practices.

I would also like to acknowledge the support and

encouragement of my family in particular Sue Rice, who
has led me to see the joy of learning through new and by
no means straightforward projects.

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

DRIVING UP THE TANAMI TOWARDS BALGO

2 Top: The edge of
METHODOLOGY OF
DESERT & WATER
This project began with an intent to develop
a practical pocketguide for use by architects
and consultants when designing with
marginalised First Nations communities.
Foregrounding principles drawn from
‘Freespace 2018’ Venice Biennale centred
around an ‘architecture of possibility’, the
pocketguide was to be a tool to aid inclusive
culturally sensitive designing and to foster
cultural exchange.
Throughout this project I have developed an
understanding that reconciliation needs to
be more than a symbolic gesture. It needs
to be done in both practice and theory by
developing projects which support the day
to day realities of communities, conducting
meaningful engagement that is founded on
respect and listening and allowing a shared
and open dialogue of ideas to flourish.
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
The Biennale acted as a catalyst to these
ideas, bringing a range of conflicting notions
and global cultures of difference together
making each more apparent in the process
as they were brought into negotiation and
dialogue around the centre stage of Venice.
This method of understanding difference
through narrative, storytelling to investigate
the self, and exploring interstitial spaces
between self and the other, has formed the
basis of my research methodology.
As my journey unfolded, the tension and
overlaps of both desert and Biennale
experiences necessitated constant reworking
of my aims and revisiting outcomes. The
opportunities afforded by the Byera Hadley
Scholarship has enabled me to realise a
research paper, an article published by the
Architecture Association in London, an
interstate conference workshop, a conference
presentation at Stanford University in
California, and co-writing and teaching design
studios all of which share a focus on the
multiplicity of issues and concerns associated
with effectively and meaningfully engaging
with First Nations communities.
This report is written to reflect the personal
journey of the project whilst also recording
key findings and outcomes. By downplaying
scholarly conventions of research, the
reports personal language seeks to
genuinely engage with diverse audiences
maximising accessibility, digestibility and
general usefulness. It serves as a way
into understanding the many twists and
turns which have given rise to the multiple
outcomes of this Byera Project.
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
“In Australia, we see designs
considered socially and culturally
responsive being knocked back
and a lot of developer driven giants
that contribute nothing to the
personality or community of their
context. There is little transparency
to this decision making process.
Perhaps what we need is a system
that equally value the qualitative
and quantitative merits of a project
in a long term and meaningful
way.”
- Sarah Lynn Rees1
3
the flooding grand
canal, Venice, Italy.
Bottom: The edge
of the balgo pound
formed by ancient
oceans, Western
Australia.
The outcomes include:
• A Pocketguide
» A2 printed poster, an ‘in the field’
conversation framework for initiating,
discussing and recording information.
» A ‘how to’ use the pocketguide, ie a support
for facilitators, which expands some of the
themes in the poster and encourages the
exploration of allied concepts and ideas.
• University Of Sydney Burri Gumminn: One Fire
Housing Studio Unit Outline
• Association Of Collegiate Schools Of
Architecture (ACSA) Less Talk | More Action:
Conscious Shifts In Architectural Education
Conference Paper.
• Beyond The Functional: Culturally Responsive
Design In Practice And Theory, Article Published
In Pnyx, June 21, 2019, Issue 68
• Australian Museums And Galleries Association,
National Conference: At The Centre, Our Peoples,
Our Places, Our Practices. Conference Workshop.
1 in Van Mannen. L., Ware. J., ‘A Conversation with three
young Practictioners, in ‘Repair’, Australian Pavillion, Biennale
Architettura 2018

4 program, 2017
STORIES
My Story
I grew up on the back of North Head at
the northern end of Sydney Harbour which
is the land of the Cammeraygal people. In
a family of architects we spent much of
our time on the water sailing, fishing and
drawing and have consequently developed
a strong respect for wind and tide as well
as a reverence for the nuanced patterns of
sandstone landscape and place. As a young
person I have had the privilege and honour of
travelling through Indigenous lands and being
involved with communities in both Australia
and the Pacific . In 2017 I visited the remote
Western Australian Indigenous community of
Warburton through USYD’s Services Learning
in Indigenous Communities program, After
this visit I was approached by Warburton’s
youth arts organisation Wilurarra Creative
to help design a new youth arts centre. This
request grew into an ongoing Warburton
Youth Artspace Project and formed the basis
of my Masters graduation design project. As
the design process continues I am weaving
client visits, community feedback and
walking country together with an unfolding
theoretical underpinning based on a line
of inquiry raised by Kevin O’Brien which
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
This page (left): Driving the
path of the Seven Sisters
Songline from Kalgoorlie east
to Warburton, 2017
This page (right): Developing
the design for the Warburton
Arts Centre during the SLIC
Opposite: Driving out on
country, Warburton 2017
explores the relationship between Indigeneity
and Architecture. He challenges architects to
develop
“Fundamental projects that sponsor,
support and affect the day-to-day events
of the Aboriginal community at large and
ultimately present a stage for a constantly
changing cultural experience.”
(Kevin O’Brien, Aboriginality and Architecture, University of
Queensland, 2005)
The Warburton Youth Artspace Project
showed me that it was relatively
straightforward to develop a programmatic
brief, ie. a list of spaces, their sizes and usage
through a series of community meetings
and workshops. Wider, less tangible issues
associated with designing for possibilities,
designing to engender creativity and finding
ways local youth might engage with their
Artspace were far harder me, my clients and
prospective users to speak of. This suggested
a need for a guide, a working prompt which
identifies and provides ways to discuss and
explore qualitative and intangible issues.
Ideally this prompt would be visually based
and promote ‘exchange through doing’
providing ways to circumvent the difficulties
of multiple languages and diverse learning
systems. As an active tool for promoting
conversations between architects and
Indigenous community members this pocket
guide might aid the designing of buildings
that are informed by inclusive exchange
and thus contribute to a meaningful and
genuine expression of Indigeneity in our built
environment.
Sharing Stories
As a young practitioner I am beginning to
understand the conflicts between cultural,
professional and academic obligations
when attempting to engage with aboriginal
contexts in Australia.
I believe that it is through the telling and
sharing of stories that we can begin an
authentic process of reconciliation. This
project is about creating multiple platforms
for discussion around the relationship
between Architecture and Indigeneity,
acknowledging its long and fraught history
and moving beyond in a soft manner through
subtle reminders of ethics, transparency,
equality and cultural specificity in a process
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
5
that aligns with notions of reconciliation
rather than decolonization. It is based around
the idea that in order to develop culturally
responsive design, designers must first
try and understand through conversation,
listening, by acknowledging differences and
shared experience just what flows in the gap
between themselves and their client, the
layers of history, significance and values that
are both specific to each and every one as
well as generic aspects of humanity. Everyone
has the right to good design. We just seem
to forget that sometimes. When working in
this context:
‘’Storytelling must begin with the teller
positioning themselves. Before re-telling
narratives, we must start with our own.”
-Samia Mehrez, The bonds of race, (1991)
“...Storytelling must begin with the teller
positioning him or herself in relation to
clan and place...”
Stephen Muecke, Textual spaces: Aboriginality and cultural
studies, 2005

6 the art centre as a
By acknowledging your own story, and
bringing that knowledge to the fore it enables
you to engage with and explore other
people’s stories, the commonalities and the
differences.
A key contributor to Indigenous Australian
scholarship is academic Martin Nakata
who advances a notion he calls the cultural
interface1.
“Spaces constituted by points of
intersecting trajectories, dynamic relations,
where intersections of time, place,
distance, knowledge traditions and politics
are composed of different people with
different histories, experiences, languages,
agendas, aspirations and responses.”
Homi Bhabha calls this third space2, a liminal
space where meaning is produced as a
result of interaction. Your being and ways of
knowing is the outcome of disruptions, to
you, your ancestors, your neighbors. We are
in constant flux, in movement through space
1 Nakata, M. N. (2007). Disciplining the savages, savaging
the disciplines. Aboriginal Studies Press. 323
2 Bhabha, H. K. (2012). The Location of Culture. Routledge.
312
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
and time, always discovering something
about and reflecting on our own identities.
“Just as the discovery of culture is a
journey, not a destination, Aboriginal
architecture should be a ‘process’ and not
just a ‘product’.”
Mills, D. and Brown, P. Art and Wellbeing, Australia Council
for The Arts, 2004, 99
I am coming to understand that storytelling is
one way in which Indigenous culture remains
fluid, existing in multiple temporalities
simultaneously. Everyone is responsible for
conducting story maintenance on country and
on a regular basis to ensure the land remains
healthy and the culture strong. Contemporary
storytelling is an important process of finding
new expressions and evolving new stories
that assemble community and pass on both
new and old traditions.3
“Neither stories nor land are generalisable,
and there are strict rules around their
transfer to others: to whom, and through
what mode of practice. The tradition
3 Professor Macia Langton, chair of Indigenous studies,
Melbourne UniversIty, talking about Wilurarra Creative,
Wilurarra Strategic Plan 2015
reveals an epistemology – system of
knowledge – in which land is central and
law, ethics, land rights and original histories
are communicated through lore that is
place and person specific.”
Memmott, P. and Long, S. 2002, ‘Place Theory And Place
Maintenance In Indigenous Australia’, Urban Policy and
Research, vol. 20
As architects, there is a need for us to
respectfully engage in mutual two way
learning. This can be hard to practice as we
take control of technical information and
language. By offering and sharing our story
we demonstrate our understanding of how
this influences our values and positions us
amongst others, It makes us human and
others can feel safe and comfortable with us.
This Byera is positioned in a time when
government policy is changing to include
Indigenous acknowledgment and consultation
but the fundamentally colonial industries
around the built environment have yet to
work out how to do it. Many want to try
but few know how. Stepping up to the
responsibility handed to us whilst taking the
lead from Indigenous architects we might ask
the question: how does this project benefit
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
This page
(left): diagram
clarifying my own
interpretation of
country and the
role that stories
and narrative play
in conducting story
maintenance.
Opposite: Balgo
men’s story, first
painted on banners
for the church in the
80s to positively
link Christianity with
Indigenous beliefs.
Now they decorate
7
giant mural
aboriginal communities? How might we move
away from symbolic gestures developed
by white people and begin to de-construct
‘aboriginal architecture’ and its associated
connotations? To quote Indigenous designer
Linda Kennedy, “black design is a white thing”.
“Moving towards reconciliation is not a
symbolic gesture. It needs to be done by
developing projects which support the day
to day realities of indigenous communities,
conducting meaningful engagement that
is founded on respect and listening and
allowing a shared and open dialogue
of ideas to flourish. We need to build
relationships and take the time to get
to know each other and learn how to
communicate.”
https://www.reconciliation.org.au/reconciliation-support-
grows-but-more-needs-to-be-done-latest-australian-
reconciliation-barometer/
Through colonisation, land has been spatially
and politically redefined as a commodity in
cadastrally described ownership. Building
becomes a political act of claiming back, re-
territorialising through doing, place making
through action.
 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

2
A POCK ETGUI DE
TAKES SHAPE

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series


“Free space is a space for
opportunity, a democratic space,
un-programmed and free for
use not yet conceived. There is
exchange between people and
buildings that happens even if not
intended, so buildings themselves
find ways of sharing and engaging
with people over time, long after
the architect has left the scene.”
2018 Venice Biennale curatorial statement,
Grafton Architects
10
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
VENICE BIENNALE
The key curatorial statement for the 2018
Venice Biennale explores the fundamental
humanitarian role of Architecture1. This
Pocketguide, informed by principles drawn
from the Biennale aims to embed its global
values within an Australian context in an
attempt to facilitate discussions around
potentially difficult topics that are too
readily blindsided by the general Australian
population.2 This is not a unique situation as
many countries are dealing with similar issues,
breaking open colonial histories and finding
strength in softly spoken knowledge.
The intention here is not to compare the
architectural projects of the Venice Biennale
with those in remote Australian communities.
The purpose of drawing upon the Biennale
as a generator of ideas is to broaden the
conversation around designing for remote
communities to include the global concerns
of architecture. Instead of starting with the
limitations of community infrastructure
and the rabbit warren of bureaucratic
procurement systems, let’s start with the
ocean of possibilities revealed by the Biennale
in its role as the global thought leadership
platform of the architectural profession.
1 Attiwill, S., La Biennale. Freespace: The 2018 Venice
Architecture Biennale, Artichoke, No. 65, Dec 2018
2 Latimore, J., Indigenous People Are Being Displaced
Again – By Gentrification, The Guardian, 9 April 2018
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
VENICE EXPERIENCE
My time in Venice was not what I expected.
It became a battle of man versus nature,
stone vs water and technology vs time. The
experience was a testament to the changing
nature of human relationships to place and
the need to scrutinize Architecture’s role as
a mechanism for change at a global scale.
How can it remain resilient in the face of
ecological, economic, cultural, and socially
unsustainable trajectories?
Frozen in time both the islands of Venice and
the Biennale pavilions were visibly crumbing
under the torrential flood waters and rivers of
plastic booted visitors on boardwalks. I came
away from two weeks of wading through the
worst high water aqua-alta since 1960 truly
believing that Venice will be gone within
the decade. The cutting-edge architectural
technologies being exhibited and the static
overtly stylised pavilions which stand as a
reminder of last century’s global powers will
sometime soon be gone, submerged, lost.
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
This page:
Controversial
venetian graffiti
questioning
Freespace as the
‘Street Pavilion’.
Opposite:
Flooded St Mark’s
Square.
Previous: detail
of ‘Becoming’, an
installation in the
Spanish Pavilion.
11
GLOBAL FRAMEWORK
OF PROJECTS
The Venice Biennale brought to the fore
aspects of architecture that are or should be
evident in all buildings, yet often seem to go
overlooked or undervalued. Foregrounding
the quality of space as distinct from form,
the theme of ‘Freespace’ focused on the
qualitative aspects of the civic spaces that
buildings create around them such as such as
generosity, freedom, and dignity. It also acted
as a deliberate provocation to incite debate
regarding colonialism, Brexit, and climate
change, questioning whether space can ever
be truly neutral and free.
The projects on display were united by a
commonality of going beyond the brief, by a
questioning of the role of the architect and
by generously offering comfort, quality, and
opportunity to the people who interact with
them.
The Thai Pavilion used the medium of film
to explore the life of spaces after designers
have handed over authorship to users. This
comment on the dynamics of time in the
production of place and context was similarly
examined in the French Pavilion titled
‘Infinite Places: Building or Making Places?’.
Displaying ten neglected places that had
 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

SPANISH PAVILION becoming,’ the title of the exhibition inside the Spanish pavilion CARER, EVERYDAY LIFE, PARTICIPATORY,
at the 2018 Venice biennale, presents the country’s architecture PERIFERIC, INCLUSIVE, Social
as seen from the perspective of different learning environments. SYNCRONISED, HUMAN, PLAYFUL
‘becoming’ is seen as an opportunity to confront established NARRATIVE, INDEPENDENT
concepts and ideas. COLLABORATIVE, INTERDISCIPLINARY,
EMERGENT, Unfinished, Temporary
AFFIRMATIVE, CRITICAL, COSMO-POLITICAL,
STRATEGIC, PERFORMATIVE, ATMOSPHERICAL,
REACTIVE, TRANSFORMABLE, EXPERIMENTAL
THERMODYNAMIC
SCANDI PAVILION A generosity not just between humans, but between humans and GENEROSITY, CO-EXISTENCE
nature
DANISH PAVILION Demonstrate architectures ability to bring forward real solutions to FRUITFUL,INSPIRING AND BENEFICIAL
our common challenges. MEETINGS BETWEEN PEOPLE, PROMOTE
Focus of the pavilion is the potential inherent in architecture to use DIALOGUE RATHER THAN POLISHED
collaborative innovations to help society respond to the emergency ARCHITECTURE, ENGAGEMENT AS KEY TO
of unsustainable practices” SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.
“What architecture brings to collaborations is a freespace of the
imagination, giving form to that which is not yet there.”

AUSTRALIAN Aims to expand the point of view from the object of architecture to REPAIR, GENEROSITY, THOUGHTFULNESS,
PAVILION how it operates in its context. DESIRE TO ENGAGE
FRENCH PAVILION Places that emerge out of specific encounters, spatial and temporal TRANSFORMATION, ASPIRATION
combination. DETERMINATION, EXPERIMENT, ENGAGED,
This page
“The architect does not stay within the bounds of building TAKE RISKS, ENERGY, THIRD SPACE,
(clockwise): French,
construction but seeks to make places just as well/ An infinitude of INTEGRATE NON-PROGRAMMED SPACES,
Japanese, Spanish
and Thai Pavilions possibilities, both here and now” SPACES FOR APPROPRIATION
Opposite: Clustering GREEK PAVILION Learning takes place in the space between. Plato founded his COMMONS, UN-PROGRAMMED DEMOCRATIC
ideas and key terms academy in an olive grove.
from the exhibits.
PHILIPPINE Built environment as an expression of self-determination. COLONIALISM, NEO-LIBERALISM, HOPE
12 PAVILION Architecture and urbanism’s ability to empower and transform lives. 13
THAI PAVILION Talks about the life of spaces after designers have handed over SYNERGY
authorship to users. This change occurs through people having
synergy with the built environment.
BELGIUM PAVILION Find the need, research a way of achieving it which involves ACTION BASED RESEARCH
participation, encourage people to feel empowered by planning,
imagining something new and making ti real.

APPLYING FREESPACE

been transformed through experimentation
and emerged out of specific encounters,
where the architect went beyond their
calling to create not only buildings, but
places, possibilities and futures. ‘Becoming’,
the title of the exhibit inside the Spanish
Pavilion, presented the country’s Architecture
following a common thread of learning and
opportunity to confront established concepts
and ideas and emphasise the architect’s new
multidisciplinary profile. It used 52 adjectives
that qualify Architecture to create a dialogue
with the visitor. This was inspirational in the
way it used a graphic mode of investigation
to open the discipline of Architecture, used
a new language of interactions, effect and
continually changing systems, to allow people
to become active participants in a collective
construction of place.
The fundamental nature of the ‘Freespace’
theme and the wide breadth of the projects
that aligned to it at times almost dissolved
the theme’s message. The concept of
‘generosity’ could be interpretable as a
universal aspect of design and it could be
argued that the very act of building is a
generous civic contribution. The Biennale’s
attempt at distilling broad ideas into neat
hierarchical bundles in order to be digested
by the general public perhaps also limited its
relevance to the audience. How do you distill
overarching ideas around subjective and
qualitative experiences? Is generosity related
to wellbeing or safety? Does that differ
between people according to identity and
context? Does identity come before respect
or does one translate to the other? Can a
building feel generous? How does a building
feel anything at all?
The Biennale acted as a melting pot of global
ideas, it was a melee of themes, principles
and manifestos pushing my understanding
of ‘Freespace’ to its limits. Each exhibit was
based on a project or series of projects that
cemented the concept in its context. In order
to use this intellectual soup to inform my
Pocketguide, I used a methodology based on
observation and recurrence (see above).
By quantitatively assessing the recurrence
of words and ideas I attempted to condense
the information to single words or phrases
removed from their contextual and project
trappings. In this way these words recurred
across languages and projects, bridging
cultural divides and intentions.
The dense Biennale lexicon that emerged
focused on concepts and terms borrowed
from fields that specialise in describing
and interacting with continually changing
complex systems, for example terms like
‘peripheric’, ‘synchronised’, ‘affirmative’ and
‘permeable’. Perhaps architecture could be
framed in these terms as something changing
with culture, time and human interaction as
opposed to memorialising a static system.
Hmong-American refugee scholar Mai Moua
in ‘Leading with Cultural Intelligence’ argues
that this fluidity and dynamism of culture
and the variety of means through which
it is expressed plays out in every human
interaction and conversation through words
and tone.3
The above table, acts as a way of clarifying
and systematising my experiences as well
as outlining the origins of this new lexicon
from specific Biennale exhibits. Although
an informative representation of this new
lexicon, the emerging terms needed to be
represented in the manner in which they
operate as a tangle of threads forming a
complex non-hierarchical woven experience.
3 Moua, M. (2012). Leading with Cultural Intelligence.

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series


14 RELATIONAL
POSITIONING:
WEAVING WORDS
This web of words (above) is one of the most
useful things I have assembled throughout
this project. It has come in handy time and
time again from working with students,
facilitating workshops and writing articles.
The Biennale was such an overwhelming
amount of project based experiences and
themes that I had to develop a way of
summarising without simplifying, translating
so many divergent global experiences into
one homogeneous pool of ideas that could
be put on the table all at once and talked
about as a whole. Once the words are set
free from their projects and pavilions they
can be applied in a wide range of contexts,
allowing me to find relevance and reference
to the Australian Central Desert.
This use of isolated single words to aid the
definition of an idea draws on a concept of
Professor Michael Tawa’s, one of using words
not to specify a meaning but to weave a
story around an idea.
“You can draw a constellation of themes
that can be researched, grouped into
multiple collectives and opened up to
potential tectonic investigation through
architectural design...”
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
-Tawa, M. (2011). Theorising The Project:
A Thematic Approach To Architectural Design.
Cambridge Scholars Pub..
Words become tools, tools of weaving
(making, interlacing, bringing together,
netting), collecting (gathering, collecting,
catching) and sustaining (supporting,
providing, continuing, nourishing). This
practical literary contraption implies soft
edges and fluidity around meanings,
acknowledging overlaps, interpretation and
translation. As a single word it can be looked
up, have its synonym googled, translated via
robot and all of this morphing adds to its
meaning and becomes a part of the process
of weaving.
This wording and speaking around ideas
rather than occupying a central defining
position could be understood as aligning with
Indigenous notions of relational positioning.
Positioning people, places, and objects as
defined by the things around them. For
example the dark emu that stretches across
our night sky is defined not by the stars,
but by the dark spaces between. Principle
Architect for the Government Architects
Dillon Kombumeri gives an example of this
relational positioning through the Indigenous
protocols of naming.4 Our recent renaming
of the last piece of undeveloped foreshore
‘Barangaroo’ in honour of Bennelong’s wife
is naming it in the western tradition after
status and seniority, for example Lord Sydney,
Lord Hobart, Lord Melbourne and Lord
Brisbane. Alternatively Canberra, derived
from ‘Ngangerra’, is named after the valley
between a woman’s breasts referring to the
two mountains that frame the city.5
The relational understanding became
apparent in the desert as “Where you from?,
Who’s your mob?, What’s your name?”
was repeatedly one of the first questions
I was asked. ‘Who I was’ became of minor
significance compared to ‘where I had come
from’, as it was acknowledged that we are
all part of one system within a much larger
system of interconnected ideas that make
up country. This was my introduction to
‘country’.
4 Talk by Dillon Kombumeri, USYD lecture Dec 2018
5 Talk by Dillon Kombumeri, USYD lecture Dec 2018
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
This page and opposite:
Word cloud as a tool of
analysis developed in
response to my Biennale
experience
EMERGING ETHICAL
QUESTIONS
The Australian architectural wave of ‘ethics
over aesthetics’1, is being fueled by a newly
15
emerging field of writing led predominantly
by Indigenous architectural practitioners such
as ‘Our Voices: Indigeneity and Architecture’,
‘The Handbook of Contemporary Indigenous
Architecture’ and blogs such as Future
Black Design. Like the Biennale, they
question the siloed nature of architecture
in particular the separate categorisation of
‘aboriginal architecture’, in which the normal
requirements of good architectural design
are often overlooked or don’t apply. Why do
universal design ideas of generosity, comfort
and aesthetics so often go out the window?
Why is the work of Indigenous practitioners
judged differently2, when it demonstrates
an equally if not stronger and more
sophisticated design response as those of an
old white male acronym firm?
These questions are intrinsically tied to the
history of our Australian nation, today’s
politics and the reason for this research
projects existence. Throughout the
experience of working on this project I have
become increasingly aware of how little,
patchy or non existent knowledge of this
history is in the design industry. The recent
changes in legislation and their implications
on projects will require a careful process of
unpacking and explaining to all practitioners.
1 Woodward, M., Exploring The Emerging Wave Of Socially
Conscious Architects, Architecture and design, 15.10.2019
https://www.architectureanddesign.com.au/
2 K, O’Brien, Chapter 2: Architecture and Consent, Our
Voices: Indigeneity And Architecture, 2018
 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
This page (left): Ground shell midden
mortar at the Sydney Observatory.
This page (right): Diagram outlining
the ability of architecture projects to
penetrate layers of history and bring
together the multi-cultural, colonial
and Indigenous histories of Australia.
(Kevin O’Brien, USYD).
Opposite: ‘Reconciliation
Conversations’, a day of provocations,
policy and project conversations, AIA
NSW Chapter, 2019.

archtiectural project

multi cultural history

16 17

colonial history

Indigenous history

POLITICS, OWNERSHIP
AND COUNTRY
Following the landing of Cook in 1770 the
first fleet arrived in Sydney in 1788 and the
early colonial architecture of Sydney was
born. Quite literally the shells from sacred
middens were ground to make the mortar
of the earliest sandstone buildings and
many that still stand today. From then until
present day Australia has been divided into
cadastrally defined patterns of ownership.
Building became a political act of claiming. It
formed a key part of Cook’s definition of Terra
Nulius as “(the Aborigines )...did not cultivate
the land or erect permanent habitations
upon it”.3 Today, even more so building is a
political act.4 Maybe there is an opportunity
3 Journal of Captain James Cook, (Day 26, 1770) in Wessell,
A., “We Will Show the Country”: Bringing History to Life, 2017
4 K, O’Brien, Chapter 2: Architecture and Consent, Our
Voices: Indigeneity And Architecture, 2018
for Indigenous peoples to lead the process
of claiming back and for architecture to be
a tool for handing over autonomy to First
nations communities. Kevin O’Brien argues
that architecture is a potential mechanism to
allow Indigenous people to find Country, and
non indigenous to learn about Country. He
believes that projects have the opportunity
to bridge the layers of Australian history and
address them all equally.
This addressing of Indigenous cultures
is something that is just becoming more
apparent at universities, but right across the
industry. Architects are not alone in struggling
with to grapple with these concepts in their
own projects.
These changes are being spurred on by a
number of policy changes in the building
industry. On the 20th July 2019, the Minister
for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt gave
his national address during a NAIDOC week
event ‘Walking In Partnership To Effect
Change’5 in which he outlined his intention
to hold a referendum to give Indigenous
people constitutional recognition. At a state
level Aboriginal cultural heritage reforms
are coming.6 In NSW currently Indigenous
heritage regulation comes under the Flora
and Fauna act, defining a living culture only
through archaeological sites and objects.
The Environmental Planning and Assessment
5 Wyatt, K., National Press Club Address - ‘Walking in
Partnership to Effect Change’, 20th July 2019
6 Reconciliation Conversations, Australian Institute of
architects, 28th May 2019
Act 1979 has also been updated as the
culmination of the biggest overhaul of the
Act since the legislation’s inception almost
40 years ago. It applies to all NSW Planning
permissions and outlines the sustainable
management of built and cultural heritage,
including Aboriginal Cultural heritage. This
reform places acknowledgment of Indigenous
cultural heritage centrally within the design
approvals process, a requirement previously
missing from both a planning and design
context.
How can we, as the design community,
respond to this – responsibly, appropriately
and respectfully?

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

3
AN EMERGI NG
POCKETGUI DE

18

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series


20
THE BRIEF FOR THE
POCKETGUIDE
The pocketguide developed as a tool
for generating a transparency between
the data collector and the person giving
the data. It had to facilitate a process of
communication with potentially limited
dialogue and maximum meaning. It also had
to set a certain tone, one of respect and free
of assumptions so that larger ideas and less
tangible concepts could be openly discussed.
It needed to facilitate drawing and writing,
freedom to diverge from topics and ability
to draw across ideas. It was very important
that both the facilitator and participant had
access to a range of mediums to record on
the pocketguide pens, charcoal, fat crayons.
The pocketguide had to be a framework
that promoted looseness, interpretation and
sharing, rather like the biennale. It is designed
to encourage you to go deeper, to listen
deeply. As a prompt for conversation the
pocketguide itself was developed through
extended process’s of exchange and debate
around the semantics of each word as each
was unpacked and stripped back to its
essence. This process refined the lexicon
down to six key clusters of terms that would
be accessible and enable participation by all.
Research shows that access and design
participation is intrinsically tied to capability
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
21
This page (top):
The A2 Pocketguide
poster.
This page (bottom):
and capacity building within communities.1 First run of ‘how
For Indigenous projects to be socially to; booklets to
accompany the
sustainable they need to be driven by Pocketguide.
Opposite: Linking
Indigenous peoples, combining traditional ideas through
knowledge with sector specific knowledge.2 conversation outlined
in the ‘How To’
This integrated approach with input from a booklet.
range of users facilitates the development Previous: Design
principles in the
of strategies and opportunities for two-way Canadian Pavilion,
Venice Biennale 2018.
learning and information exchange.
Merrima Design Unit, founded by Indigenous
architects in 1995, aimed to create
architecture which responded to Indigenous
needs, revolving around consultation and the
inclusion of Aboriginal people in decision
making regarding their environment. They
believe that only then can architecture
respect cultural practice, respond to THE POCKETGUIDE IN
meanings of country and place and make
culturally responsive spaces.3 From extensive PICTURES
conversations with Michael Mossman, a
key member of the now closed design unit, What developed was a 2 part guide. An To accompany this poster is a small pocket
He believes that consultation and inclusive A2 printed poster outlines a conversation sized ‘how to guide’ booklet which expands
practice need to be widely taken up by the framework for discussing and recording some of the themes in the poster and
profession. information on as it is brought up. It is large encourages the facilitator to explore allied
enough for the participants to see and concepts and ideas. This should be read by
1 Designing with Indigenous communities, Jacqueline contribute too and be drawn on by many the facilitator before beginning the session.
Gothe, social design sydney talks, UTS, 24.04.18
people and record comments , observations It can also be used to record relevant
2 Designing with Indigenous communities, Angie Abdilla,
social design sydney talks, UTS, 24.04.18
and concerns. architectural examples that might be
3 Meriima Design Unit website, http://www.spatialagency. referenced throughout the conversation.
net/database
 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

The role of this project is THINK ABOUT:

to develop a tool which -The consultation is about talking with not talking at, allowing space
for answers. Think about attitude of working with, drawing with,
encourages qualitative talking with, walking with.

notions of generosity - How you are going to meet people?

- How you are going to have these conversations and where?
and thoughtfulness to Can people focus?
Is it shaded? I
be embedded in the Is it quiet?
architectural design brief - Consider using the poster to draw peoples responses on. Write
from early stages so as down peoples comments using their own words so that they can see.

to stand the best possible - Explain to people what you are going to do with this material and
when they will hear back to follow up.
This page: A typical
setup when using
chance of being present in - Try and remember peoples names (stickers)
the poster, in the
shade and offering
the building. refreshment.
- Bring something to the consultation to share: lamingtons, tea, biscuits
are all great for sharing. Opposite: Extracts
from the ‘How To’
- Provide textas and markers for people to draw themselves and guide. Designed
plenty of paper. as a print at home
resource to be
filled out when in
WHEN SHORT ON TIME: community.

If consultation time is pressing, the following two questions could

loosely touch on much of the content in this guide:
- What are some things that make this building good
for you? Why?
- Can you tell me if there some things that you think
could be better? Why?
22 23
Asking ‘why’ reveals the intention behind the statement. Allow for it to
be hard to answer as it requires un-packing.You may need to go over
it a number of times.
PROJECT SYNERGIES

Key factors in developing the ‘Pocketguide’ relationship established throughout my

were to consider who exactly will use it and
how might it be used when engaging with
Indigenous communities? It is the ‘who’ and
the ‘how’ which I expected to find out more
- COMFORTABLE about through community trials.
- SAFE
- SECURE It became apparent certain Biennale ideas
ALSO CONSIDER: could equally be used as a framework
for talking about initiating the design of
a building or as a toll of post occupancy
evaluation assessing existing community
buildings. Working with existing buildings had
KEY QUESTIONS:
certain advantages. It could allow ideas to
Does this building help you feel comfortable? Why?
be demonstrated through tangible examples,
Does this building help you feel safe and secure? Why? to see the extent of how these principles
are evident in real buildings, and enable
seeing to what effect community engages
with the principles present in the building.
It is my understanding that when working in
communities it is important for designers to
acknowledge current use patterns of existing
ASSOCIATED FREESPACE NOTIONS: BUILDING EXPRESSIONS: buildings, as well as any particularities
around what resonates and doesn’t work for
-Value -Everyday
the specific community in which they are
-Belonging -Wellbeing working.
-Caring -Human
My initial intention was to trial the
Pocketguide with the assistance of the
Warburton community due to our working
university graduation project. However
through discussions with another 2019 Byera
recipient, Doug Hammersly1, the possibility
of overlapping his project and mine became
apparent, there were obvious synergies. With
Doug’s focus on post occupancy evaluation of
significant contemporary Indigenous projects
and Arts Centres on the one hand and with
my focus on ways of facilitating community
inclusion in the initial stages of designing, our
projects had the potential to both support
and complement each other.
On the ground this meant I joined Doug for
a short period of 2 weeks in shared remote
area travelling, where we served as research
companions which was so helpful when
visiting remote communities for the first time.
This decision to travel together also allowed
the Pocketguide to be trialled in a number of
communities where differences in outlook,
country, situation and experience could prove
to be a useful tool for re-informing the guide.
As designing with Indigenous communities
necessitates working closely with multiple
client groups, the more groups I could speak
with the better!
1 Doug Hammersly, Architecture in Remote Australia:
Community and Art, 2018 Byera Hadley recipient.

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

4
I N COMMUNI TY

24

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

EACH PLACE IS
DIFFERENT
Over the course of two and half weeks Doug
and I visited the communities of Tennant
Creek, Yuendumu, Balgo and Warmun
spending a few days in each getting to know
people, the managers and their (sometimes
multiple) Art Centres. Doug typically steered
26 conversations towards building particulars,
whilst I sought out the users and spoke with
them about the more qualitative aspects of
their experiences using the Centres as set out
in the Pocketguide.

Before arriving we made contact with each

of the managers, juggling weekends, days
off and sorry business to find a time to visit
that worked for everyone involved. All were
generous with their time and understood the
value of what we were doing. Some offered
accommodation and organised meetings with
elders and artists and all extended an offer to
return and spend more time. We also passed
though the communities of Ali Kurung,
Hermannsberg, (between Balgo and Halls
Creek), Halls Creek and Kununurra but stayed
only long enough for a cup of tea and a yarn.
These unofficial visits came through word of
mouth connections or guided by new friends
from larger communities nearby.

In the nature of fully testing the Pocketguide,

my intention was to use it in a slightly
different way in each community exploring its
potential as a record during conversation, a
prompt, a partner for drawing, as a follow up
or as a record after conversation.

Visiting and being so welcomed by these This page (left): The trusty 80KM
communities was a truly life changing Landcruiser rig.
This page (right): Our N
experience and as such the following journey from Alice Springs
up the Stuart Highway and
recounts are written to reflect that personal then the Tanami Track.
journey.

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series


28 TENNANT CREEK JURNKKURAKURR
Pocketguide As Record
In April 2019, we headed to Tennant Creek to
follow up our first lead. The Tennant Creek
& Barkly Region Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and
Culture Centre had been closed for 12 years,
reportedly run into the ground through poor
management. In classic outback style we
had been asked to ‘give someone a lift’ so
we were driving up the Stuart Highway with
Anna an experienced Arts Centre manager
who had been working across the country
for twenty years. We were all volunteering
to help re-open the Centre. This turned out
to be four fantastic 18hr days of both back
and front end work, from sifting through
piles of architectural drawings dating
from 25 years ago, filing manila folders of
interviews with artist and local stories, to
painting the front door with local resin,
baking damper for the opening night and
creating a database for all the paintings in
the collection. The new manager, Erica Izett
was an experienced woman whose greatest
skill was her ability to make people feel
valued, involved and needed. She had the
town solicitor framing up paintings after
work hours, the prison inmates cleaning up
the yard and the young CDEP (work for the
dole) fellas out collecting mulga to make
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
2KM
spears and ‘number 7’ clubs for the gift shop.
The whole process had an amazing energy
and intensity to it, culminating in an opening
ceremony involving an address by architect,
anthropologist and personal mentor Paul
Memmott. Following his address a smoking
ceremony was held throughout the building
as well as the smoking of newborn babies,
a women’s dance and a men’s dance. Most
importantly beef stew, roo tails, damper
and endless sweet tea was served to all 300
people who came.
Designed by Sue Dugdale, the Cultural
Centre building or “Nyinkka’ as it was
affectionately known fell into the
architectural category of a foreign object, a
UFO.
“That Nyinkka, d’ya know she is shaped
like a lizard from above. The old people
wanted it that way. Its important to us
Waramungu. Nyinkka is of this place”
- Jerry Warumungu-Kelly
This page (left): Block work
made from local sand and
spinifex
This page (right): Jerry
drawing his favorite parts of
the arts centre in the sand.
In 1995 the Warumungu elders of Tennant
Creek initiated the development of the
Centre, which opened in 2003 after several
years of consultation. Of the two gallery
spaces, one consisted of curved glass walls
and 6-metre ceilings and the other a winding
windowless space of permanent and touring
displays. Behind these front of house spaces,
services and support rooms continued
the curving form, resulting in small oddly
shaped rooms, inappropriate orientation and
multiple entry points. Over the years offices
had become storage, shop became gallery,
and workshops were stripped and locked.
Despite the present inadequacies of the
building it was indisputably architectural,
standing out as a cultural icon and symbol
in a tired town of dusty concrete block and
temporary dongas.
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
29
Sitting down with traditional owner,
Waramungu elder and mentor Jerry, we
spoke around some of the questions in
the pocketguide in relation to the Art
Centre’s beginnings. It became apparent
the consultation process for developing
the Centre was extensive. As the traditional
owners, the Waramungu elders had been
resolute on creating a place to celebrate
their stories. Talking and jotting notes on
the pocketguide, we walked around the site
with Jerry pointing out details of planting
irrigation systems, discussing the use of
medicinal plants in the grounds and the way
the bricks were made onsite from local earth
and spinifex. Here was someone who was a
proud owner keen to show off their iconic
building.
Here I encountered my first conundrum.
 This page (top):
Gathering for the
opening ceremony.
This page (bottom):
Preparing the fire for
cooking and the roo
tails to be baked in
the coals.
Opposite: A lesson
making damper in
Jerry’s screened
porch. kitchen.

‘Jerry why doesn’t anyone from the town She said:

seem to come here?’
(considering it was located right next to ‘We don’t go to Nyinkka, that’s a
the towns central shops) Warumungu place. I am Walpuri. Been in
Tennant Creek for 20 years but I cant go
He explained: ‘They don’t come here. This there”
isn’t their place.
“Would you ever feel like you could sit and
paint there? Maybe if they changed the
building?”
Pocketguide As Prompt
‘No never. Thats a Warumungu site.’
It was only by heading out to the Barkley
Arts Centre located in a dingy old school
I was learning that in these communities
on the opposite edge of town did I start
which have a long complex and often violent
to understand what Jerry meant. All the
history, this nuanced relationship between
tables in an old classroom had been pushed
traditional owners and people who have
together into the centre as one big table and
drifted, been moved off their land and settled
around it a few women were painting. I got
in town is the source of much conflict.
chatting with a senior woman named Mary
Community and cultural centres designed
Jane whilst she waited for more paints to be
in consultation with traditional owners that
mixed for her. After explaining where we were
directly reflect totems and symbols from
from, what we were doing and why, I pulled
those Traditional Owners stories become
out the pocketguide and together we spent
exclusive spaces for that often small section
a few minutes carefully looking over all the
of the community.
drawings before Mary Jane pointed to the
image of many hands symbolising inclusivity.

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

32 33

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series


34
On the evening of the Nyinka opening
ceremony these tensions could be read in
plan around the dancing ground, where the
soft sand had been collected from a nearby
sacred Warumangu river site. The Traditional
Owner elders sat in the front row with their
families behind in the seated section. The
majority of the crowd stood 30 meters
further back, leaning on walls and sitting on
edges.
I can only wonder if these tensions were so
visible when the building was going through
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
Invited Guests
Traditional Owners
Townspeople
the consultation process or is this something
that is the product of exploring the art/
cultural centre typology in the area? Maybe
these questions of use and wider ownership
were never raised?
This page (top): Social layers
around the ceremony space.
Opposite: Preparing the
herbs and spinifex resin for
the smoking ceremony.
Previous: Pocketguide filled
out whilst talking with Mary
Jane at Barkley Arts Centre.

YUENDUMU
36
Pocketguide Accompanying Drawing
We had heard mixed reviews of the
Warlukurlangu art centre at Yuendumu. Run
by two Chilean women for over 15 years it is
one of the largest licensee’s of indigenous
art ‘products’ in Australia. Tea towels, bowls,
spoons, dog collars, pencil cases all bear
the trademark of Warlukurlangu. This was
an arts centre that was a booming industry
and substantial income for the community.
From what we could understand the centre
ran on a rather ethically dubious payment
arrangement, with artists being paid a
wholesale price based on size for the works
upon completion regardless of time spent
or subject matter painted. ‘Money story’, the
colloquial term for the time when finished
paintings we brought in, cataloged, archived
and the artists were paid, was held every
afternoon at 3pm sharp. We learned later
that in most other communities money story
was a weekly if not fortnightly affair. The
human capacity of the centre peaked just
before 3 and then turned to a ghost town
at 5 minutes past. This booming economy
had a dramatic effect upon the atmosphere
of the centre. Over the morning there were
artists propped up everywhere painting on
pre- stretched, primed and base coated
boards. Out the back an army of 10-15 ‘arts
workers’ were making, stretching, priming
and base coating canvas’s of all sizes.
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
2KM
These volunteers consisted of some young
community members but mostly art school
students from major cities looking for the
‘Indigenous experience’.
The building floor plan stretched out in all
directions with the permanently staffed
cash register positioned at the centre.
Developed over a period of 20 years the
building was made up of extensions upon
extensions, with the 2 Chileans driving a
practical solutions based approach to their
building, if somewhat idiosyncratic. What
was immediately apparent about the building
is the myriad of nooks and crannies where
people could sit. There were low curved
walls, a big screened in shaded area with a
cool concrete slab, places to sit under the
trees and light a little fire, a seat leaning
against the water tanks offering some
radiant cooling.
With everyone being very used to young
city buyers and curators bustling around the
centre, upon arrival we were immediately
ignored by the artists. Sitting down at one
of the big painting tables I started to sketch
the space, waving away the 15 dogs which
had sniffed me out. Since Tennant Creek
I had been musing on how to announce
my presence and intent in a soft an
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
37
approachable manner. Perhaps the common
language of drawing would help?
When I pulled out a charcoal stick and started
sketching the arts centre space a senior man
in a white cowboy hat came and sat down
opposite and we started chatting. Otto
Jungarrayi Sims was an active board member
of the Warlukurlangu centre and very proud
of what it represented to the community. On
learning that I was an architecture student, he
asked my opinion on his new business plan
to develop painted toilet seats as products,
designed by him and manufactured in china.
“Hey anything that makes you feel good is
good no?”
- Otto Jungarrayi Sims
I pulled out the poster and we started talking
through and drawing through the building,
what made it so special, what made people
feel respected in it. We ended up turning the
This page (left): Large
poster over, snapping the charcoal in half shaded porch for
and drawing a smudged plan together on painting in. People can
see out but not in.
the back to really get into the detail of the This page (right): Low
curved walls prevent
history, who worked where and why, and the dust and wind from
important sense of community enterprise and blowing through the
painting spaces.
success that prevailed.
 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

38 39

This page (top): Arts

centre plan drawn
together with Otto.
This page (bottom):
Drawing and talking
together with Otto.
Opposite: The
building maximises
its informal edge
conditions on all
sides.
Following:
Pocketguide filled
out for the Youth
Services building to
try it with a different
building type.

Drawing through this plan together the
connections between the aerial dot
painting style of the Central Desert and
the rendering style of architectural drawing
became strongly apparent. The flattening
of perspective and abstraction of form,
ground as in between space and relational
positioning all played out on paper in front of
us. It was a truly transparent process of two-
way learning.
Otto drew us a map of where to camp
that night. It consisted of a single line that
ducked and turned. Despite drawing aerial
ideas together all afternoon, we spent 2
hours driving in circles before we arrived at
a special camp called Juka-Juka, an ancient
rock formation that marked the birthplace of
baby clouds.

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

40 41

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series


42 BALGO WIRRIMANU
Poster as Secondary
Balgo proved a very different model of
interaction. Upon arriving and introducing
ourselves at the arts centre the young
energetic manager Poppy excitedly put us
to work utilising our architectural skills and
willing hands. Within the first day we had
sorted through 10 years of archived files and
categorised the fascinating architectural
history of the arts centre, re painted the large
gallery space from bright red to deep purple,
and re designed, planned and strategised
how to re-purpose the ‘music room’.
Throughout the trip we repeatedly came
across these kind of spaces. We saw music
rooms, silk screen workshops, skate rings,
kiln and glass studios all built to support
very specific skills, training and development
programs within the last 5 years and now
abandoned or defunct. In Yuendumu it had
been silk screening, in Tennant creek it was
sculptural welding, and at Balgo it was a
whole building specifically designed as a
music recording studio. The space was filled
with an assortment of expensive gear whilst
half of the sound booths had never even
been finished before the whole project was
abandoned. Much of the gear looked as if
it had never been setup and was covered
with a fine layer of red desert dust. The now
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
2KM
familiar story suggests that well intentioned
government sponsored programs had their
funding cut following elections and national
budget changes, the facilitators moved
on, and skills were never taught or shared,
leaving behind a sad trail of expensive
‘could have been’s’ throughout the desert
communities.
At Balgo, because of the immediacy of our
involvement with the nuts and bolts of the
centre the poster became a secondary thing
that was jotted down on when I could in
conversation in between making cups of tea
and cleaning brushes. People would come
and see what we were doing, offer their
opinion and hang around and watch. These
small snippets of interaction proved far more
valuable than an interview style engagement.
They placed the emphasis on people feeling there so often seems to be a lack of vision for in a new way. In return for helping, we can
like they could ask questions of us and the centre beyond the individual goals and gain experience around very real interactions,
engage on their own terms. We were in their aspirations of each manager. Basic project which offer an insight into the community
space, working to help them. management, creative problem solving, from the perspective of operating within it.
strategic envisioning, archiving and archival This would provide the foundation for a much
As architects we have a plethora of skills organisation are all skills of the architect. improved building project response. In this
that could help arts centres both physically These skills developed through practice lie in case, the poster was superseded by authentic
and strategically help them to re-frame addition to our extensive tertiary education community lead interactions.
their current situations. Due to the almost and training to visualise things not yet
annual turnover of arts centre managers, conceived, make something different a very
tangible reality and to use what is available
 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
This page (left): Painting the gallery
display space inside the Arts Centre.
This page (right): Sawtooth Gorge,
a story place near Balgo.
Opposite (top): Repainting and
hanging the gallery space.
Opposite (bottom): Sitting, drawing
and talking with the elders as they
paint.
Previous: Signage at the highway
turnoff to Balgo.
Following: Pocketguide filled out
from conversations with the elders
and the manager Poppy.

44 45

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

46 47

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series


WARMUN WARRAMUN
48
Poster as Record Post Conversation
In Warmun, the arts centre, its program and
its building are directly tied to the history
of the community. In recent years this is
characterised by radical and violent change
overlaid upon extraordinarily powerful and
resilient continuities carried through deep
time.
In 1886 a telegraph station was established in
the area to service the camel trains carrying
provisions for the brief but intense gold
rush in Halls Creek.1 The local Gija people
were put to work by European farmers who
came to exploit natural resources and run
cattle on their traditional lands, marking the
beginning of the traumatic displacement
of Gija people and their cultural traditions.2
The Equal Wages Award for Aboriginal stock
men in 1968 forced many Gija people off the
stations and drifted into fringe camps around
the telegraph station that together form
Warmun community today. Over the years
the community has slowly grown around
the telegraph station and the old building
1 Massola, C. (2012). Jarragbu-nungu warrambany flood in
Warmun. Artlink, 32(4), 23.
2 Pelusey, J And Pelusey, M (2006), Life In Indigenous
Communities. Warmun, East Kimberley, Western Australia,
Macmillian Education Australia, Melbourne
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
2KM
has been continually re-purposed, first as a
and ration depot, then shop, then as the arts
centre for the community.3 Elders began to
build an art collection that was used to teach
kids from the Ngalangangpum School the
Gija stories. The first classes and dances were
held under the Boab tree that still stands in
front of the telegraph station. Today Warmun
Art Center is one of the largest and most
significant cultural institutions in northern
Western Australia. This claiming back of
that original architecture of oppression is
something that the community are very
proud of. After the trauma of events tied to
the architecture of the telegraph station, the
Gija now speak of it as their building now, the
physical heart of their community.
In 1998 The Daiwul Gija Cultural Centre was
constructed directly behind the telegraph
station as a modern arts centre facility to
replace the old building and house the
community’s precious collection of over 340
paintings, wooden carvings and sculptures.
The devastating 2011 flash flood damaged
over 90 per cent of the paintings housed in
3 GIJA TOTAL HEALTH http://www.kimberleysociety.org/
images/kimbsoc---alochirupu.pdf
This page: The old
telegraph station
that now houses
the art collection
this new centre and the collection was sent
interstate for conservation and storage.4
Just before our arrival in Warmun the elders
had made the decision that the collection
should be returned to the community and
housed back in the old telegraph station, one
of the few buildings that survived the flood
unscathed. They believed that this cultural
knowledge, artifacts and paintings needed to
be held on country and the knowledge and
stories that the collection represents should
be held safely in the heart of the community.
This strong history points to the resilience of
Indigenous peoples to continuously evolve
their story.
My own understanding of the importance of
this old telegraph building and the position
that it occupies in the eyes of the community
came about through the experience of
sitting in on a meeting with the art centre
board, made up exclusively of community
elders. With the addition of tea and our gift
of a bag of Arnotts assorted, the meeting
4 McDowell, C. (2011). Warmun floods devastate a
community and its art. ABC Kimberley.
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
49
turned into an intense session of sitting
and listening to the stories that each board
member had in connection to that building,
from babies being born in the shade of its
veranda to reminiscing about learning the
Gija songs in the dancing circle out the front.
From listening, it became obvious that the
collection could never be stored interstate,
that the 1998 cultural centre was palace
for tourists, not a keeping place for the
precious collection. The telegraph station
and the collection together play a huge
role in teaching younger generations and
both are cultural objects in their own way.
The community faces ongoing battles with
national conservationists wanting to preserve
the valuable collection off site.
In Warmun this splitting of the tourist
gallery from the arts centre keeping place
came about through a process of trial
and error over the years. I am coming to
understand that this is one of the most
important considerations when working
with this typology of community building. Is
the building for the people or the tourists?
Is it for cultural preservation or economic
determination? Can both coexist in one
space?
 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

This page (top):

Board meeting of
elders. They prefer to
meet underneath the
new facility.
This page (bottom):
Storage inside the
telegraph station.
Opposite: Walumba
Elders Centre in a
sad state of repair.
Following:
Pocketguide filled
out with Lindsay, a
50 local artists and arts 51
centre worker.

These fundamental yet not obvious questions
were raised on multiple occasions by the
pocketguide as conversations turned to
issues of ownership, safety and generosity.
Although the questions have been raised
repeatedly and discussions taken place it
seems that there is no one answer, rather it is
dependent on the community, the place, the
history, the building and the management.
One thing that became clear from the
Warmun experience was that it was the
communities ownership and pride in an old
piece of utilitarian colonial infrastructure
that has made their arts centre one of the
strongest in the Top End.
Maybe architecture has nothing to do with
Freespace. Maybe Freespace is about the act
and process of ownership and occupation.
This idea was reinforced in Warmun as I went
to visit the award winning Iredale Penderson
Hook Walumba Elders Centre.
design truly sustainable buildings. Where
some buildings achieved great energy
performance or high results through
certification programs, this project
illustrated sensitivity to people and culture,
a respect for environment and building
response and delivered it with ingenuity
rather than a large budget.”
- Competition judge
Winning the Multi-Density Category prize
and the Best of the Best award at the 2015
Sustainability Awards. The architects intention
was:
“To act as a focal point for bringing the
community back together, and to aid in the
transmission of the unique aboriginal lore,
Gija language and cultural knowledge to
the younger members of the community”
- Iredale Penderson Hook
Tragically it fell victim to corrupt contractors
who ripped $5 million from the community
that had been allocated for the running of
the centre. Another victim of bureaucratic
external powers the project now stands as a
painful ‘could have been’. Now the community
has no way of finding the money to staff the
new facility so it sits with its gates chained,
slowly corroding whilst kids throw stones at
its windows for a game.
Perhaps the pocketguide and its associated
values need to be considered equally in the
design of buildings, community programs and
services, as each can not function without
the other. Walumba proves that the best well
intentioned building is nothing without the
service infrastructure to keep it running. As
architects perhaps we need to look beyond
our siloed field of design and place greater
value upon the human social mechanisms that
make buildings work.

“Though there were many candidates for

However upon arrival we were greeted by a
the overall award, the Walumba Elders
sorry sight. The beautiful building had never
Centre stole the show as it demonstrates
had the chance to be occupied by community
the skills and understanding required to
before it was forced to close its doors.

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

52 53

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

5
FI NDI NGS SEEN
AND UNFORESEEN

54

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series


56
HOW THE
POCKETGUIDE
SHAPED UP
In speaking about the findings of this
Byera project, some relate specifically to
the pocketguide whilst others have arisen
simply by being out there spending time
in conversation with particular people in
particular communities. Some of the findings
you could say were expected whilst others
were so unlikely they could not have been
foreseen.
Perhaps one of the most profound and
personal lessons has been to come to
understand that in Indigenous thinking it is
not important whether A follows B, follows
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
57
Previous: Halfway along the Tanami
Track, the mid point of our journey.
This page (top): Otto with the
building plan we drew together.
Opposite: Prized car bonnets used
as signage across the top end.
C, rather the importance lies in seeing the
interconnectedness, the relationship between
A, B and C. We have much to learn.
So in writing these findings perhaps it is not
important to speak of what came first, what
comes next under another heading and what
follows, rather it is more appropriate to sketch
out for the reader an array of findings where
each is seen in relation to the other and at the
same time is understood as having a bearing
on the other.

58 PROJECT FINDINGS
• The pocketguide at a very simple level
worked as a great record of conversations.
People could see their responses to questions
being taken seriously and recorded faithfully
on the guide. They felt their opinions
mattered and there is a strong sense of
transparency and accountability in the
process.
• People had strong feelings as to whether
their Art Centres supported them and in
many cases they didn’t.
• Where the Art Centres/Cultural Centres fell
short people thought long and hard about
how to make them work better.
• Designers need to be mindful that there
are likely to be different responses from Art
Centre managers, community members and
community artists. These differences need
to be understood and respected. It is often
easier to speak with managers than with
community members so care should be given
to understanding the role of the person you
are speaking/working/engaging with.
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
• Understandably many managers also felt a
need to speak for their artists and community
elders which could lead to dismissing of
individual artist’s needs in favour of the
Arts Centre’s needs. Remember to fill out
a pocketguide for each client and/or client
group.
• It is not always easy to speak with
community members, especially if you have
no contact person. Particular groups within
a community might be even harder to access
eg, youth groups as they may or may not
have a spokesperson who is happy to talk
with you. Bear in mind that people don’t
know you, you have had little opportunity to
gather trust.
• Art Centre managers may find big picture
thinking difficult as they typically move
between Centres every few years.
• Arts centre managers are a unique
type of individual, often escapists and
artists themselves, they are incredibly
knowledgeable about their centres, how they
like things to be done, what works and what
This page: Balgo arts centre
manager Poppy showing us
the edge of the Balgo Pound.
Opposite: Teams of city arts
workers behind the scenes
priming and stretching canvas.
doesn’t. After visiting a couple of centres it
became apparent that there was a consistent
lack of big picture thinking possibly due
to the fractured nature of time spent in
community. Rarely does a manager stay more
than 2 years. Across all of the centres the
managers shared a ‘make do’ resourcefulness,
making what they could work with little to no
money. This poses a challenge to the design
of arts centres as over time, a broken tap or
a change in arts practice from printing to
painting could render half of the building unfit
for purpose, unused and a costly accessory.
Repeatedly we saw locked unusable services,
kitchens turned offices turned store rooms
that no longer functioned as anything
properly because the shelves had been
turned into display plinths.
• Try to remedy one-way or imbalanced
exchanges.
• There is an idea that research is taking from
community. Linda Tuai Smith in her book
Decolonizing Methodologies (1991) explores
the idea of the ‘Other’ in research projects
with indigenous communities. Notions of the
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
59
“other” emerged as inferior to the dominant
anglophile “knower”, allowing Europeans
to refine and define themselves as superior,
in a position of power, framing the identity
of the colonized and the colonizer. To try
and remedy the one-way nature of the
exchange I believe that the ‘knower’, be they
architect, designer or contractor needs to
begin the process of engagement by offering
something first. As you are asking people for
their knowledge, a reciprocal thing to offer
and bring to the table might be your own
story. Sharing your story has the capacity
to be a leveling experience, allowing you to
engage meaningfully with the client group
and explore how both of your stories and
your narratives influence and respond to
the way you both perceive and conceive
designed environments around you. Perhaps
you have to give a bit to get a bit. This could
be worked into the ‘how to……..” part of the
pocket guide.
• In relation to the wording and framing of
the pocket guide to a First Nations audience,
the ideas that I had carefully distilled into
the Pocketguide were inseparable from

60
each other. This meant they were answered
by another all-embracing idea, the notion
of country. In a sense every question
prompted by the guide could be answered ‘...
because its my country, I was born here. My
grandmother painted here’ This immediately
took our conversations well beyond the
built environment to ideas of country,
fundamentally rooted in place not space.
• Upon reflection, this expanding into
wider notions of country made me question
whether we can really talk about qualitative
spatial ideas just in the built environment.
People respond to places through feelings
and these feelings are not limited to buildings.
In an atmosphere where building forms are
so compromised by cost, maintenance and
demand their importance falls away and
the framework of the program becomes
the primary support for its users. Over the
trip I saw too many instances where the
community program fell apart long before
the buildings did. The youth program in
Balgo where they couldn’t use the basketball
facility because there weren’t enough staff
to supervise such a big area. In Warmun we
walked through broken gates of the never
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
This page: Territories
of Resilience, Canadian
Pavilion Venice Biennale
touches on the evolving
nature of culture to ensure
its survival.
Opposite: Another half
finished and abandoned
project outside Halls Creek.
operational desolate award winning elders
centre by Iredale Penderson Hook
• The qualitative questions that form the
basis of my pocket guide need to be asked of
the program as well as of the building design.
Ideally they would be answered together.
Perhaps this project is about making more
clear the relationship between building
infrastructure and the social frameworks that
are needed to operate and make these spaces
successful.
• Another explanation for Indigenous
people to separate out answers to the
guided questions could be explained by the
fundamental differences between a western
hierarchical way of thinking compared to
an indigenous relational understanding of
people, places, time and experience.
• The overarching aim of the project was
to develop a practical pocketguide for
use by architects and consultants when
designing with Indigenous communities.
Like the Biennale the pocketguide highlights
and draws upon the inherent aspects of
architecture that so often get overlooked, in
this case due to working in remote or difficult
contexts of marginalised communities. The
Arts Centre attitude of ‘do you know anyone
that can help and can they do it cheaply?’ or
the government’s ‘lets just get a draftsman
in Canberra to design it’ nature of building
works and construction means that there
seems to be a large amount of people
working with communities with no previous
experience around culturally responsive
designing. I believe that this pocketguide
could be a useful tool for these new
participants in reminding them of the larger
goals of decolonisation and reconciliation,
with the possibility of it becoming an integral
part of the tendering process (inspired by the
recent amendments to the NSW Education
SEPP Design Quality Principles).
• Perhaps there is opportunity for the
pocketguide to be displayed in Arts Centres
as a reminder of broader cultural priorities
when it comes to embedded community
organisations. It could form the basis of
ongoing community workshops which
identify, draw up and add to ideas, ensuring
they are embedded in the operational
structure of the organisation along with the
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
61
ever evolving building form. Lending weight
to cultural resilience in a rapidly changing
world.
• This broader thinking around resilience
through identity and ownership encourages
the Indigenous built environment to start to
align with broader reconciliation outcomes
and the national ‘Closing the Gap’ scheme.
• The 2019 Closing the gap report outlines
the central role that connection to country
has with aboriginal identity, mental and
physical health, wellbeing and education.
These outcomes are becoming widely
recognised across many industries through
the nation Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP)
scheme.
• Perhaps the ideas outlined in this pocket
guide also have a place in the every day,
acting as a gentle reminder to all about the
qualitative nature of how we engage with
buildings, a reminder of a way of thinking that
puts people, their stories and their differences
in the front of conversation.
 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

6
NEW OUTCOMES,
NEW SETTI NGS

62

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series


64
This Byera Project has turned into a far
greater project than realising my initial
intention of generating a pocketguide.
Over time and through immersing myself in
Indigenous communities, an intense interest
and concern to work and walk further down
this pathway has become clear. Exploring,
practicing and finding effective and inclusive
ways of working with Indigenous people is
central to what I am now doing in many of
the layers of my architectural undertakings.
Since being awarded a Byera Scholarship, it is
as if a certain momentum has been achieved
and opportunities have presented themselves
one after the other which have allowed me to
extend and build upon the initial scholarship
undertakings and for that I am grateful.
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
Previous: Housing stock
that forms studio based
in Yarrabah community
This page: Students
listening to senior
community members
share their stories.
Opposite (left): Exploring
the word cloud of themes
in the design studio.
Opposite (right):
Workshopping design
briefs in Yarrabah.
USYD FACULTY OF 65
ARCHITECTURE DESIGN
AND PLANNING - DESIGN
STUDIO
I feel this project has given me unique ‘ Architectural education is empowered between story, comfort, environment and
opportunities to open my eyes and with agency and a capacity to critique values. Beginning with the web of words
experience the realities of our nation. socially inequitable issues. It offers unique developed as part of the Byera pocketguide,
opportunities to make an impact with this studio’s line of enquiry expands outwards,
It has helped propel me into a scholarly communities beset with challenges of crossing over multiple layers of research,
position of action and be part of a network infrastructural inequality. ‘ at times looking into broader Indigenous
of thought leaders in this field. I have forged Stanford paper., co written by Michael Mossman and I.
issues to do with identity, notions of country,
strong friendships with fellow Byera scholars story telling and performance, how to design
exploring overlaps and connections between for self-determination, an architecture of
Together Michael Mossman and I co-wrote
our projects through talks, panels and possibility, down to specifics such as the
and teach a design studio for second year
forums. Connecting with a new generation ramifications of building in remote, tropical
architecture students as part of a studio
of young Indigenous architecture students environments, what this means for building
titled ‘Let Every Voice Be Heard’. The
and graduates that will no doubt go on to materials and construction techniques, staged
studio collaborates with the Indigenous
champion changes is an inspiration. Led by implementation, use of local skilled and
Australian community of Yarrabah situated on
Kevin O’Brien and Dillon Kombomuri, and unskilled labour and training opportunities.
Gungganyji country about the critical issue
including such people as Tiana Furner (BVN), This project challenges young architects to
of housing. It is a reaction to the ongoing
Marni Reti (Kaunitz Yeung), Sam Rich (Design develop:
housing crisis in Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire,
Inc.), Joel Spring (Future Method Studio)
and the current unsatisfactory ‘one size “Fundamental projects that sponsor,
and Jack Gillmer (Rothelowman), it is an
fits all’ approach to housing for Indigenous
honour to count these people as friends and support and affect the day-to-day events
people.
future collaborators. Collectively they have of the Aboriginal community at large and
Our method encourages students to engage
all been involved as critics and guests in a ultimately present a stage for a constantly
the narratives of self, reflecting upon
design studio that I have co-developed with changing cultural experience.”-
their own stories to facilitate a process of
Indigenous architect and scholar Michael
reciprocal cultural exchange and explore Aboriginality and Architecture, Kevin O’Brien University of
Mossman at the University of Sydney. Queensland, 2005
a heightening of cultural difference. This
experience enables the emergence of new
and authentic dialogue in the design studio This is the very same challenge my Byera
and encourages exploration of qualitative project sought to explore.
spatial implications, unpacking the connection

66 STANFORD
CONFERENCE,
SEPTEMBER 2019
Last September Michael Mossman and I
successfully presented a workshop and
were invited to co author a follow up paper
entitled ‘Narrative, Self and Engagement:
an Immersive T(r)opical Experience’ (see
appendix) for the 2019 Association of
Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA)
Fall Conference, hosted by Stanford
Architecture & Yale School of Architecture.
The ACSA is an association of over 200
Universities across the world. Through
these schools, over 5,000 architectural
members are represented with ACSA
providing a forum for ideas on the leading
edge of architectural thought. Themed LESS
TALK / MORE ACTION: Conscious Shifts
in Architectural Education, the Conference
aimed to investigate the evolving pedagogy
and curriculum that is responsive to the real-
time needs of students, the profession, and
society, and how this can consciously shape
the future of Architecture.
“Even as [architecture] practice
becomes increasingly expansive in its
considerations, and recent research
in education advocates for a more
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
This page & Opposite (left):
Presenting a workshop based
on my word cloud of themes
at the ACSA conference at
Stanford, 2019.
Opposite (right): Using
the word cloud to explore
stories of self in design at a
workshop for the AMAGA
conference, 2019.
integrative curricula and pedagogy, our
teaching methods and structures have
remained resiliently tied to centuries-old
models.”
- conference overview http://www.acsa-arch.org/programs-
events/conferences/fall-conference/2019-fall-conference
Taught in the method of the pedagogy being
shared, we presented a hands on workshop
that gave participants opportunity to explore
how self-reflective participant stories and
narratives influences and responds to the
way designed environments are perceived
by those around them. Stories of self and
foregrounding that knowledge enables an
engagement with and exploration of other
stories, unpacking both the commonalities
and differences between.
Using the challenging lens of housing and
notions of the home, this workshop offered
participants experience in understanding
how architecture can engage as the interface
between cultures and people, and the needs
of specific communities within broader
societies.
Presenting on a global stage a methodology
that we developed out of our own
experiences with communities was a once
in a lifetime opportunity. The many hours
spent sitting with the pocket guide on the
floor in communities, talking through what
was important, listening deeply, recording
accurately and fairly and sharing stories in
return has developed into a pedagogical
approach that notably impressed senior
academics from the world’s leading
architectural schools. Dean of Yale Deborah
Bourke commented:
“One of the most engaging sessions at
the conference” and “proposed a method
that could be adapted to a range of
institutional settings.”
-Deborah Berke, FAIA, LEED AP, architect, educator, and the
Dean of the Yale School of Architecture.
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
AMAGA 67
CONFERENCE
Earlier in March this year I developed and
presented a workshop at the Museums
Galleries Australia National Conference 2019,
‘Our People, Our places, Our practices’.
Titled: Beyond The Functional: Culturally
Responsive In Practice And Theory, this
workshop provided participants experience
in understanding how Architecture and
exhibition design can respond beyond
pragmatic project requirements to support
the cultural needs of Indigenous communities,
creating responsive environments which can
in turn become places of learning and active
cultural practice.
Closely linked to the Pocketguide, the
topic responded to a very real and urgent
need, how to appropriately, competently
and productively engage with Indigenous
communities on design projects, in ways that
respect and mobilise cultural distinctiveness.
The workshop focused on designing spaces
that connect to country and community,
creating culturally responsive architecture,
and encouraging Indigenous voice in the built
environment. It addressed processes that are
often overlooked in stakeholder engagement,
aligning with the conference themes of
Indigenous agency, identity, methodologies,
communities and relevance.

68 PNYX
ARTICLE
Th AMAGA workshop formed the basis of an
article similarly titled: Beyond The Functional:
Culturally Responsive Design In Practice And
Theory, written for PNYX, a paper published
by the Architecture Associate in London,
which I have included in full as an appendix to
this report.
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
INDIGENOUS
AWARENESS IN THE
WORKPLACE
Both of these conferences have been fully
supported by and dovetail into my current
architectural work at Hayball Architects, with
offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Within the company I have stepped up to a
role of Indigenous Engagement Facilitator,
and work across all projects to help facilitate
Indigenous engagement where appropriate.
I am also responsible for delivering internal
presentations around the relevant changes to
legislation and promoting workplace change,
shedding light on the responsibility and due
diligence of us as architects to ask questions
of our clients around how they intend to
address Indigenous heritage in their projects.
This page: Working with
the reconciliation action
plan working group.
Opposite (left): PNYX
article June 21, 2019.
Opposite (right): Acting
as Indigenous engagement
facilitator, presenting at
Hayball architects.
RECONCILIATION AASA INDIGENOUS
ACTION PLAN WORKING RESOURCE
GROUP PORTFOLIO
Over the last 12 months I have worked closely
with Sam Rich and Michael Mossman who
form part of the Institute of Architects’
Reconciliation Working Group to help support
their vision of a RAP for the NSW chapter
of the Australian Institute of Architects. This
involved researching relevant and previous
RAPs and synthesizing a draft response to
be workshopped and refined by the working
group.
I see this project and the things that have
followed on from it as providing opportunities
to support the work of Indigenous architects,
taking part in the conversation and sharing
the responsibility of exploring how to address
Indigenous culture in the built environment.
The changes that need to happen are far
greater and need to happen far quicker than
the few practicing Indigenous architects
can manage themselves. They need the
support of like minded people in the industry
to spread their message and echo their
questions.
.
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
69
The wide ranging research required to
develop this Byera project has resulted in an
extensive collection of published resources
around Indigeneity and Architecture.
This resource has formed the basis of my
now ongoing work with The Association
of Architecture Schools of Australasia
(AASA), to develop the first online archive
of this material that will be accessible to all
architecture schools across the Australasian
region. This research has expanded to include
publications around architectural design,
architectural education, university contexts,
design performance and evaluation, planning,
policy as well as New Zealand and Pacific
contexts. This archive of resources now
includes over 300 papers that can be actively
drawn upon as a learning tool through a
portal on the AASA website. This research
task is being overseen by Michael Tawa,
Professor of Architecture and Associate Dean
Indigenous at University of Sydney.

CONCLUSION
70
The opportunities afforded by the Byera
Scholarship have enabled outcomes far more
extensive and broad reaching then ever I had
initially intended, with the Pocketguide now
sitting within a wider context of research,
writing, presenting and teaching.
The unfolding methodology of this project
has been informed by Indigenous ways
of being, knowing and doing. The project
has evolved from the pocketguide, into a
broader process for sharing lived experience
that can inform future architectural design
process. Sharing stories is an essential
part of continuing culture as is finding new
expressions and evolving new stories that
assemble community and pass on both new
and old traditions.
The Pocketguide is intended as a starting
point and a place to begin for those who
want to enter the conversation. It is a tool
that facilitates a slow form of dialogue, one
accompanied by sharing of stories, drawings,
histories and futures. It is about recording
these in a transparent process. It is about
creating opportunities to reference, recall
and interpret these in design. It is a tool to
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
help translate dialogue into architecture,
generating an infrastructure of emergence
as a framework in which new unanticipated
things can arise.
Having the privilege of sharing stories with
many community members has given me
a new perspective on the role, value and
place of design in social transformation and
community development.
More broadly this project has given me
unique opportunities to open my eyes and
experience the realities of our nation. IN so
doing it has challenged the essence of who I
am as both a designer and white woman with
colonial heritage. Working with people from
many different nations has taught me that
both deep listening and bringing your own
story to the fore are important parts of the
design process as they allow you to have a
conversation around difference and new ideas
of resilience.
The project has grown into an exploration
across multiple platforms of the relationship
between architecture and indigeneity, an
acknowledgment of its long and fraught
This page: Doug and I pulled
over on the side of the
Tanami track to admire the
ant hill architecture. 71
history and a path moving beyond in a soft
manner through subtle reminders of ethics,
transparency, equality and cultural specificity.
A process that aligns with notions of
reconciliation rather than decolonisation.
In order to develop culturally responsive
design, designers must first try and
understand through conversation, listening,
difference and shared experience what it is
that flows in the gap between themselves
and their client, the layers of history,
significance and values that are both specific
to each and every one as well as generic
aspects of humanity. Everyone has the right
to good design. We just seem to forget that
sometimes.
 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

7
APPENDI X

72

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

Burri
74 1. Gummin 75

One
BURRI GUMMIN:
ONE FIRE,

University of Sydney, 2019.

Second year design studio unit
outline.
Fire
Produced by Michael Mossman and I as
part of the ‘Let Every Voice Be Heard
Housing studio co-ordinated by Michael
Muir. with student workshops.

USYD
‘Let Every Voice
Be Heard Housing
Studio’ 2019

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

“Just as the
discovery of
culture is a
journey, not Unpacking our own stories:
By reflecting upon our

a destination, own stories, a process of

reciprocal cultural exchange

aboriginal
and a heightening of cultural
difference will be explored.
This experience will enable

architecture the emergence of new and

authentic dialogue in the

should be
design studio and encourage
explorations of qualitative
spatial implications,

a ‘process’
unpacking the connection
76
between story, comfort and
77

and not just a

‘product’”.
- Deborah Mills and Paul Brown, Art and Wellbeing
(Sydney, Australia council for the arts, 2004 pg 99)

architects to develop:
The aim of this design studio
is to develop appropriate and

“Fundamental projects that

sustainable housing solutions
for members of the Yarrabah
community.
This project is a reaction to sponsor, support and affect
the day-to-day events of
the ongoing housing crisis in
Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire, and the
current unsatisfactory ‘one size
fits all’ approach to housing for
indigenous people. the Aboriginal community
Indigenous architect Kevin
O’Brien speaks of the relationship at large and ultimately
present a stage for a
between Indigeneity and
Architecture and the challenge to

constantly changing cultural

experience.”

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

The
Brief
asks for a
community
‘wellbeing precinct’
in the heart of
Yarrabah. Within this
masterplan you will
develop 2 specific
78 79

housing solutions
that all follow the
Murri Way: The Precinct plan will be an exploration of - Any new additional services can be added
into the precinct as determined by your
Supporting the self-determination of the existing community services in Yarrabah
research and approach.
Indigenous people in their housing choices. such as:

- The shop - To address the housing shortage in

They are intended as buildings which both the - The post office Yarrabah, the precinct will include the addition
specific users and the wider community can engage - The church of at least 2 new intergenerational housing
with and come to feel to be their own. - The school solutions.
- The market
- The childcare -Designed and developed in detail, these
This studios line of enquiry crosses over multiple layers can be renovations to existing houses, new
of research, at times looking into broader Indigenous - The council chambers
- The reporting centre houses, multi family houses, a modular
issues to do with identity, notions of country, story telling expandable house system, Youth housing....
and performance, how to design for self-determination, an - The pharmacy
etc.
architecture of possibility, down to specifics such as the
ramifications of building in remote, tropical environments, - All of these new houses will need to be
what this means for building materials and construction accessible.
techniques, staged implementation, use of local skilled and
unskilled labor, training opportunities and so on.

There is not one line of enquiry, rather it is like trying to follow

a porous tracery of fine threads at times aligning, coming to
the fore, receding behind or trailing off.

It is about seeing the overall lie of the cloth, or maybe it is the

land.

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series


Overarching
Project
Principles
This project aims to:
-- Describe a generosity of spirit
and a sense of humanity at the
core of architecture's agenda,
focusing on the quality of space
itself.
80 -- Focus on architecture’s ability
to provide free and additional
spatial gifts to those who use it
and on its ability to address the
unspoken wishes of strangers.
-- Celebrate architecture’s
capacity to find additional and
unexpected generosity in each
project - even within the most
private, defensive, exclusive
or commercially restricted
conditions.
-- Provide the opportunity to
emphasise nature’s free gifts of
light - sunlight and moonlight, air,
gravity, materials - natural and
man-made resources.
-- Encourages reviewing ways
of thinking, new ways of seeing
the world, of inventing solutions
where architecture provides for
the well being and dignity of each
citizen of this fragile planet.
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
-- Be a space for opportunity,
a democratic space, un-
programmed and free for uses
not yet conceived. There is an
exchange between people and
buildings that happens, even
if not intended or designed,
so buildings themselves find
ways of sharing and engaging
with people over time, long
after the architect has left the
scene. Architecture has an
active as well as a passive life.
-- Encompass freedom to
imagine, the free space of time
and memory, binding past,
present and future together,
building on inherited cultural
layers, weaving the archaic
with the contemporary
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
This Project
Will Explore
The Questions:
81
(in roughly this order)
How do you design buildings that are culturally
responsive?
-- Embed in community
-- Understand the significance of relating to country,
narrative, performance,
-- To be cultural responsive in practice and in theory
What might the buildings be like –
atmosphere, character?
-- Strong connection to country, to place
-- Provide more than functional brief, what might this be?
What sort of spaces might be included?
-- Liminal space, edges, thresholds. Places to chat, to meet,
to gather, to reflect, to hang on the edges of
-- Spaces which trigger creativity
-- Spaces which are safe, are comfortable,
What expression might the building have?
-- Non patronizing, not rough or agricultural, neither overly
simple, nor crude
 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

Diagrams from Take 2:

Housing Design in Indigenous
Australia, edited: P. Memmott,
C.Chambers,2003

Educational
Aims Of
The Project
82 83

Include:
(please read these
as you may be
marked against
them)
Spend time working on
site to investigate cultural
considerations when designing
with indigenous communities

Become familiar with the accessible housing guidelines:
-- Australian Housing and Urban Research
Institute
-- Housing for Health guidelines established by
Health Habitat.
Understand and appreciate:
-- The specific needs and functional requirements
of different clients
-- the culture of the clients,
-- the way traditional, tropical and existing
buildings in Yarrabah are constructed
-- their unique relationship to the area.
Establish an overall strategy for housing to address:
-- existing site conditions (orientation, mirco-
climate and surrounding context)
Understand appropriate design and siting to:
-- create a network of buildings and communal
spaces;
-- foster and reinvigorate ideas of self
determination, pride in culture, bright futures,
and inclusive practices.
Explore the implications of:
-- site repair and maintenance;
-- buildability, local labor, and skills training.
Develop your emerging design process to:
-- building on your experience of designing to date;
-- develop an integrated approach to architecture,
landscape, construction, environment, structures
and people!

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

Themes
Informing
Your Design
Principles How to design a building
which is culturally
responsive?
To explore this question in your design
scheme you will need to develop a line of
enquiry.

A line of enquiry is a path of research that

gives weight and meaning to your design.
84 85
It provides the factual basis of your
concept to expand upon.

You keep developing this line of enquiry

as you progress your building design.
ARCHITECTURAL ARCHITECTURAL ARCHITECTURAL They may be expressed as a series of
TECTONICS DESIGN THEMATICS statements, facts or research framework
that inform your design principles.
ie. building elements, a combination of building ie. concept, theory, design
materials, form, elements assembled with a principles, logic, reasoning,
relationships, requirements, logical rational the why Your line of enquiry research and design
the how work will start by exploring 3 themes from
the list of key themes on the following
page.

This list has been developed to help you.

Through your research these three

themes will give rise to a constellation of
further themes, that will be investigated
to develop a thematic framework for
your project. This framework will become
the basis of your design principles
and strategies and will be developed
in parallel with architectural ideas
of planning, construction, and site
pragmatics that come together in your
design (see diagram above).

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

DESIGN QUALITIES
THEMES
IN-BETWEEN THIRD SPACE EMERGENT

ROOF
INTERSTITIAL LIMINAL FLUX

CULTURAL PERMEABLE EVENT N AT U R A L S L A B O N G RO U N D A B O V E G RO U N D P L AT F O R M TO P L AT F O R M / S L A B

G RO U N D TO B E TO S T R E N G T H E N S L A B TO E D G E E L E VAT E C O M B I N E D TO VA RY
GROUND C O N N ENCATT EUDR A L S L A B O N G RO U N D A B O V E G RO U N D P L AT F O R M TO P L AT F O R M / S L A B
RHIZOMATIC NNAT
AT
G UURU
RO NLLD TOSSLBLAEABBTO
RAA OONN SG RO
TGR E NUG
RO UNTNDHDEAA
NBBOOV
SVLEEAGBGRO
ROUUENN
TO DDG
D E PPLLAT
ATFEFO
LOERR
MMTO
VAT TO
E PCPLO
LAT
AT
MBFFION
ORERM
DM/ TO
/SSLLAVA
ABBRY
GROUND GGRO
ROUUNCNDO
DTO N EBCBETEETO
NTO DTOSSTTRREENNGGTTHHEENN SSLLAABBTO TOEEDDGGEE EELLEEVAT
VATEE CCOOMMBBI N I NEEDDTO TOVA VARY RY
GROUND CCOONNNNE C
E CTTE D
E D
GROUND

SUB THEMES

GROUND
GENEROSITY CARING TEMPORARY

HUMAN SOCIAL PERFORMATIVE

86 SPREADING E N F O L D I N G RO O F S E R I E S RO O F L AY E R I N G RO O F JOINING S H A D I N G RO O F 87
RO O F F OSRP RGEEAND-I N G TOE N P ROT
FOLD E ICNTG RO OTO
F ESXEIRSITEISNRO G O F TOL AY S HEU RTI NTGE RRO O F RO
J OO I NF I N G TO
S H AODC I NCGU RO
PY OF
UNFINISHED POSITIVE FLUIDITY E ROROS OI TFY F O R G E N - TO P ROT E C T TO E X I S T I N G STO
PAC S HE U T T E R TO E RO N TO ER F TO
E DO GCE CS UPY
SSPPRREEAADD EI NRO EENNFFOOLLDDI N
I NGGS I T Y I NGGRO ROOOFF SSEERRI EI ESSRO
ROOOFF LLAY AYEERRI N
I NSGPAC
GRO RO EOOFF TJH
OJOIN
TO
RO I NIUENGGT
IN
N G
HE R SSHHAADDI ENDGG
IN G ROS OOFF
ERO
RO
ROOOFFFFOORRGGEENN- -
ROOF TOTOPPROTROTEECCTT TO
TOEEXXI SI STTI N
I NGG TO
TOSSHHUUTTTTEERR ROHO
TRO OFFU G H TO
TOOOCCCCUUPPYY
COMFORT EVERYDAY LAYERED EEROROROOF
SSI TI TYY SSPAC
PACEE TO
RO
TOEENNTTEERR EEDDGGEESS
TTHHROROUUGGHH
ROOF
ROOF
NARRATIVE SYMBIOTIC ENGAGEMENT

SELF- OWNERSHIP RESPONSIVE

POSSIBILITY

S U G GSEUSG
TG EDE S TMEDO VA MBOLVA
E WA
B L ELWA
L S LTO
L S FTO
R AFMREADM WA
E D WA L L SL L S M AMS A
OSNORY N RY PAPA
I RIERDE DWA
WAL LL SL STO
TO
KIT OF KIT
PARTS
OF PARTS WA L LWA
S TOL L SG TO
U I DGE U I D E O P E NOPEN TO TO D I VDI DI VEI D E TOTO SEC S EUCRUER E HO LD
HO LD

25 PROJECTS

WALLS
SSUUGGGGEESSTTEEDD MMOOVA
VABBLLEEWA
WALLLLSSTO
TOFFRRAAMMEEDDWA WALLLLSS MMAASSOONNRY
RY PA
PAI RI REEDDWA
WALLLLSSTO
TO
KIT
KITOF OFPARTS
PARTS
In order toInmake
WA
WALLLLSSTOTOGGUUI D I DEE OOPPEENN TOTODDI VI VI D
I DEE TO
TOSSEECCUURREE HHOOLLDD
orderreal the key
to make realexperiences
the key experiences
CLAIMING INDIGEˇNIZING GENDERING identified through
identifiedthe architecture
through of the of the
the architecture
InInorder
ordertoto make
make real
realthethe key
key experiences
experiences
Artspace I Artspace
developedI developed a ‘kit of
a ‘kit of parts’. Theparts’. The
TESTIMONIES INTERVENING ENVISIONING identified
identifiedthrough
through
four the
thearchitecture
elements architecture ofofthe
four elements of ground, roof, walls andwalls and
of ground, roof, the
Artspace
ArtspaceI openings
Ideveloped
developed area aexpanded
‘kit
‘kitofofparts’.
parts’. The
intoofaThe
series of
STORY-TELLING REVITALISING REFRAMING openings are
four
fourelements
elements
expanded
ofofground,
ground,
into a series
roof,
roof,walls
wallsandandway of L O WLWA
O WLWAL S L L SL O FLTOYFWA
T Y WA
L L SLTO LESNTOEN
C C LS O
LO I NSG
I NWA
G WA L L LSLCTO
SRCTO
EREENE INNI G
N GWA
WAL LL SL STO
TO
building possibilities, different
building possibilities, different way of TO STO S IN
T O N S TA SNTA D NB D
E SBI D
E SEI D E S H SEHLTE ELTRE R S ESEE ET HT RO
H RO
UUGG HH
WALLSWALLS IT O
CELEBRATING CONNECTING RESTORING openings
openingsare
engaging with
areexpandedwith into
expanded
engaging
the building.
a aseries
seriesofof
intobuilding.
the
LLOOWWWA WALLLLSS LLOOFFTTYYWA
WALLLLSSTO EENNCCLLOOSSI N
TO I NGGWA
WALLLLSSCTO
RREEEENNI N
CTO I NGGWA
WALLLLSSTO
TO
building
buildingpossibilities,
possibilities,different
differentway wayofof TOTOSSI TI TOONN SSTA
TANNDDBBEESSI D
I DEE SSHHEELTLTEERR SSEEEETTHHRO ROUUGGHH
WALLS
WALLS
REMEMBERING REPRESENTING RETURNING engaging
engagingwithEachthe
with of building.
the building.
these possibilities is simple in design
Each of these possibilities is simple in design
and construction, appropriate in a desert
SHARING NEGOTIATING DISCOVERING and construction, appropriate in a desert
Each environment
Eachofofthese
these andisis
possibilities
possibilities relevant
simple
simplein toindesign
Indigenous
design
environment and relevant to Indigenous

OPENINGS
people. appropriate
Each possibility
ininaisadesert
set out in the
DEMOCRATIZING NAMING CREATING and
andconstruction,
construction, appropriate
people. Each possibility is set out in the
desert
environment
environment following
and boxes, to
andrelevant
relevant described
toIndigenous
Indigenous in terms of how
following boxes, described in terms of how
NETWORKING PROTECTING people.
people.Each eachpossibility
Each might be isused.
possibility setOn
isset outthe
out next
ininthethe page this O P E N W I N D O W S TO S E C U R E W I N D O W TO W I N D O W TO W I N D O W TO L O O K AT
each might be used. On the next page this O P E N W I NSDEO EW O SU TTO
S E C U R E SWE EI NODUOTWB UTO T W I NSD I TOIWN ATONDW I N D O WDTO I S P LLAY
O O K AT
‘kit of parts’ evolves into 4 room types.
following
followingboxes,
boxes,described
describedininterms
termsofofhow how SEE OUT SEE N O OT
UT G B EUTT I N LSOI TO IKNOAUNTDF RO M D I S P L AY
‘kit of parts’ evolves into 4 room types. OPENINGS
each N OT G E T I N L O O K O U T F RO M
eachmight
mightbebeused.
used.On
Onthethenext
nextpage pagethis this OPENINGS OOPPEENNWWI N I NDDOOWWSSTO STO
SEECCUURREEWWI N I NDDOOWWTO TO WWI N I NDDOOWWTO TOWWI NI NDDOOWWTO TOLLOOOOKKAT AT
This ‘kit of parts’ was presented to the SSEEEEOOUUTT SSEEEEOOUUTTBBUUTT SSI TI TI NI NAANNDD DDI SI SPPLLAYAY
‘kit
‘kitofofparts’
parts’evolves
evolvesinto
into44room
roomtypes. types.
This ‘kit of client
parts’atwas
thepresented to the
3rd site visit. NNOTOTGGEETTI N I N LLOOOOKKOOUUTTFFRO ROMM
OPENINGS
OPENINGS
client at the 3rd site visit.
This
This‘kit
‘kitofofparts’
parts’was
waspresented
presentedtotothe
the
client
clientatatthe
the3rd
3rdsite
sitevisit.
visit.
32

32
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
3232
 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

The Schedule
Site of Spatial
1

2
KNOWLEDGE CENTRE

MEETING / OFFICE SPACES

Requirements
3 COMMUNITY SPACE

4 PRIMARY SCHOOL
11

Each Dwelling Should Include

12
14 5 SHOP

RESIDENTIAL

(As a minimum requirement):

6

7 CHURCH

13
1 KNOWLEDGE CENTRE PARK
8
10
- Outdoor food preparation/laundry/wash area (bench,
4
large sink, drain, protected from extreme weather)
PRE-SCHOOL
2 MEETING / OFFICE SPACES 9

10 BEACH
- Outdoor fireplace/cooking place
COMMUNITY SPACE
3
11 MISSION BAY - Shaded/rain protected outdoor space (seating, easily
4 PRIMARY SCHOOL 12 OLD CEMETARY accessed from house)
- Living spaces indoor (large openings, ventilated using
5

BUSHLAND
prevailing winds, )
13
14
6
5 SHOP
7
- Bedroom (refer to clients requirements, ventilated using
14 SHIPWRECK

88 6 RESIDENTIAL
prevailing winds) 89
CHURCH
MASTERPLAN REDEVELOPMENT - Accessible bathroom (toilet, shower, basin, laundry, en-
7
2 1
8
REFURBISH sure that all wet area facilities are not located in one room)
8 PARK RETAIN KNOWLEDGE CENTRE
- Possibly additional bathroom to be accessed from outside
(refer to clients requirements)
3

RESIDENTIAL REDEVELOPMENT
9 PRE-SCHOOL - Kitchen (with clear circulation of at least 1500mm, not
located near toilet access)
BEACH
10
9
LAND | SEA INTERFACE - Lockable storage area
11 MISSION BAY - Accessibility ramp to front door
BUSH | URBAN INTERFACE
- Fencing (gate to allow car access)
12 OLD CEMETARY - Washing line
- Rubbish area
13 BUSHLAND

Communal Outdoor Space

14 SHIPWRECK

1 KNOWLEDGE CENTRE MASTERPLAN REDEVELOPMENT

Should Include:
MEETING / OFFICE SPACES - Outdoor food preparation area
2 REFURBISH
- Seating (for individuals and large groups)
3 COMMUNITY SPACE RETAIN KNOWLEDGE CENTRE - Outdoor fireplace/cooking area
- Shaded outdoor space
PRIMARY SCHOOL
4 RESIDENTIAL REDEVELOPMENT - Access to water
SHOP *Consider ways that outdoor spaces might support cultural
5
practices and relieve over-crowding at peak times.
6 RESIDENTIAL
LAND | SEA INTERFACE
7 CHURCH
BUSH | URBAN INTERFACE
8 PARK
Precinct Design Should Include:
9 PRE-SCHOOL
-- Communal shaded eating /bbq area for day to day use and
10 BEACH special events and functions
-- Landscaping/trees as privacy screening between units.
11 MISSION BAY -- Pathways to houses
-- Each house has fenced yard area
12 OLD CEMETARY

13 BUSHLAND

14 SHIPWRECK

MASTERPLAN REDEVELOPMENT

REFURBISH

RETAIN KNOWLEDGE CENTRE

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
RESIDENTIAL REDEVELOPMENT

90 2.
NARRATIVE, SELF
AND ENGAGEMENT:
AN IMMERSIVE
T(R)OPICAL
EXPERIENCE.
LESS TALK | MORE
ACTION: Conscious Shifts
in Architectural Education,
Association of Collegiate
Schools of Architecture (ACSA)
fall conference held by Stanford
Architecture & Yale School of
Architecture.
This workshop and paper was co-written
and presented by Michael Mossman an
myself at the conference in Standford
University California in September 2019.
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
LESS TALK | MORE ACTION: Conscious Shifts in Architectural Education
Narrative, Self and Engagement: An Immersive T(r)opical Experience
MICHAEL MOSSMAN
University of Sydney
ANNA EWALD-RICE
University of Sydney
We pay our respects to the traditional custodians of the
Country1 on which this paper was composed. This is the
Country of the Gadigal People.
Architectural education is empowered with agency and
a capacity to critique socially inequitable issues. It offers
unique opportunities to make an impact with communities
beset with challenges of infrastructural inequality. One
such challenge is the right to adequate house, a basic
human right stipulated by the United Nations.2 Indigenous
Australian community ways of being, knowing and
doing are predicated through traditional, historical and
contemporary narratives that coexist within a settler-
colonising framework. Architectural engagement with
housing is a challenging issue within communities that is both
celebrated and commiserated with endless permutations
in between. Immersive and experiential inquiries that
activate understandings of this dialogue have little visibility
in architectural education studio environments. This
paper reflects on a participatory workshop that engages
participants in these inquiries about self relative to a specific
Indigenous Australian community issue.
INTRODUCTION
An architect once asserted that ‘the embodiment of
architecture requires the difficult unity of inclusion rather than
the easy unity of exclusion’.3
As an inclusive act, this paper is conscious that the rights
of Indigenous peoples requires sustained and innovative
approaches to architectural learning and teaching. Narrative
through storytelling, as a method of investigating the self
and engaging with interstitial spaces through the power of
immersive environments provide the ‘how’ and the ‘now’ to
substantiate this ‘Why’.
Demonstrating a participatory pedagogical approach, a
hands-on workshop provided to participants a first-hand
experience of coming to understand how architecture can
draw upon people’s own experiences and a process of self-
reflection to acknowledge the cultural needs of a specific
Indigenous Australian community. The workshop provided an
opportunity to draw, discuss and explore how self-reflective
participant stories and narratives influences and responds to
1
the way designed environments are perceived and conceived
around them. Stories of self and foregrounding that knowledge
enables an engagement with and exploration of other
stories, unpacking both the commonalities and differences
between. This approach aims to embed cultural differences
and acceptance into design studio thinking, creating active
culturally responsive educational environments where the
importance of Country, community and contextualised
91
performative acts all have a presence.
Using the challenging lens of housing and notions of the home,
this workshop offered participants a first-hand experience in
understanding how architecture can engage as the interface
between cultures and people, and the needs of specific
communities within broader societies.
The following questions underpin this line of enquiry:
• How do architectural educators include narratives of cultural
difference when teaching design methods?
• Why is it important to teach students to story tell their own
narratives of self to understand others?
• What are outcomes of self-reflective engagement with
culturally specific qualities in the application of good
design for others?
NARRATIVE & PLACE
Both of us live and work on the land of the Gadigal people.
Acknowledged as the traditional custodians, Gadigal is a word
that describes place with Gadi translating to Grass tree and
Gal translating to People. The thriving metropolis of Sydney,
Australia’s largest city now occupies this territory. This Country
has never been legally ceded.
It is important to recognise that the Australian continent
was invaded, colonised and settled through global British
expeditions of territorialisation. After the events of the
American Revolution, land was required to replenish this loss
of North American continental territory.4 . The Independence-
related narratives of new cultural differences in the American
new world not only impacted land illegitimately obtained from

2 Narrative, Self and Engagement: An Immersive T(r)opical Experience
92
Figure 1. Encouraging students to develop sensitivity to the specific
cultural needs and values of this unique tropical Indigenous Australian
community, image: Anna Ewald-Rice
First Nations peoples in that space, but also the Aboriginal
societies of the Great Southern Land.5
An examination of the indigenous map of Australia
demonstrates diversity, difference, multiplicity and many
cultures existing upon the island continent. The boundaries
are fluid yet distinct, blurred yet understood through learning
and experience. In contrast to these soft non-cartesian edges,
the current map of Australia outlines a federation of Colonial
States, forming a Commonwealth Nation claimed by the British
Crown. These binary boundary conditions could be described
as smooth and striated.6 Smooth as means of describing
traditional methods of acknowledging, understanding and
living with space. Striated as a method of overlaying cadastral
information over space regardless of how it impacts the
terrains of land and sea. It is important for students to consider
that both conditions can coexist in all their multiplicity of forms.
The cultural differences that exist within the Indigenous map
of Australian was and is reciprocated in the cultural diversity
that exist within the invaders, colonisers and settlers. This is
an over arching commonality that breaks down the binaries
of black and white and facilitates self-reflective practices.
Acts of engagement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
has occurred consistently across time to inform changes
and allow new ontologies, epistemologies and axiologies
to emerge. This workshop provides an opportunities to
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
engage with new audiences to acknowledge and appreciate
these new dialogues.
POSITIONING ONESELF
‘’Storytelling must begin with the teller positioning
themselves. Before re-telling narratives, we must
start with our own.”
— McGaw and Pieris7 summarises Mueke8
In an architectural education context, stories of self are
important to self-reflect on own histories and narratives to
appreciate those of others. This occurs through storytelling,
a humanistic action that is demonstrable through various
methods. In architecture, all senses are engaged with some
more prevalent than other. Storytelling makes truths and
is based on participant actors positioning, not within one
side of the binary or another, but within the possibilities
between, within, across and below binaries.9 It is important to
acknowledge the continual states of becoming that we exist
within to query the binaries of society, that it the black or the
white, the left or the right.
I am Kuku Yalanji10, I was born and raised on Gimuy
Walabara Yidinji land which is Cairns Australia. I finished
my architecture degree in 2001, worked in practice for
15 years and engaged in projects with many Aboriginal
communities. While I am a registered architect, I am now
a lecturer and doctoral candidate at the University of
Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning. I am
Michael Mossman.
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
LESS TALK | MORE ACTION: Conscious Shifts in Architectural Education
Figure 2: Students experiencing the realities of housing in Indigenous
Australian communities
I am Anna Erica. I was born and raised on the back of
North Head in Sydney Australia.11 This is Cammeraygal
Country.12 I finished my architecture degree in 2017 and
have worked for 6 years with internationally recognized
artists and remote indigenous arts centers prior to my
current position with Hayball Architects.
As co-authors, these stories and experiences inform our
roles as both educators and professional practitioners in
architecture that live and work on Gadigal country. The
disparate nature of these two narratives and histories has led
to the development and evolution of an architectural studio
that explores the self-reflective qualities of students through
a semester long iterative exercise. A self-reflecting exercise
as a form of engagement with client is a critical quality of
architectural practice. Privileging Indigenous ways of being,
knowing and doing in architectural education and practice
is important to influence, impact and transform emerging
thought leaders in the profession. We see this as the power
and responsibility of educational practice.
The conference workshop presented a learning experience we
conduct with by second year architecture students in a studio
titled ‘Let Every Voice Be Heard’ developed by lecturer Michael
Muir. The studio is in its third iteration and collaborates with
an Indigenous Australian community situated on Gungganyji
country about the critical issue of housing. A workshop carried
out in the first week of semester instructs students to tell
3
their stories and narratives through illustrative maps within
the context of overcrowding and homelessness in Aboriginal
communities. The maps are reflective and conducive to a
variety of expressions based on the personal experiences
of the author. This can then inform how the student further
engages with the studio by indicating the depth of illustrated
knowledge being shared.
SHARING AND ENGAGEMENT
This narrative inquiry opens possibilities that stories of self
are shared for others to appreciate, critique, understand
and acknowledge commonalities and differences. This act
of engagement endeavours to connect to their lives, stories,
narratives and experiences through an illustrative format. It
is process that is in turn reciprocated through exchange and
a reminder of the humanity of storytelling and the campfire
setting inherent in each of us. Storytelling through oral and
illustrative traditions such as Aboriginal communities in 93
Australia is a process that is based on up to 65,000 years of
ancestral knowledge and experiences. While factors such
colonialism have deeply affected the narratives of Aboriginal
communities prior to colonisation, the generosity and spirit of
such evolving communities to share narratives with others is
clear and present when engaging with them directly.
The interaction of worldviews exposes complexities and
contradictions to creates spaces of engagement:
“Not only recognize the commonalities and tensions
involved with communities of difference, but extends a
zone of continuous negotiation between binary positions,
now to open to new emergent possibilities”13
—Michael Mossman, Our Voices Indigeneity
and Architecture
This was the first time many students had explored the
studio setting so all were exposed to new ways of being,
knowing and doing based on, historical understandings,
listening to expertise in community and appreciating specific
environmental conditions of place. This experience combined
with their own lived experience enacted a studio learning
quality different to any previous curriculum tasks.
The architectural studio learning experience was critical
for the students to explore and share their own narratives
to acknowledge and connect with the narratives of the
community. The outcomes of this workshop remain uncertain,
however it is process-driven and enabled an innovative mode
of learning. The Stanford Conference provided an opportunity
to refine the tasks associated with the workshop and share
the contents of the workshop to an architectural educator
audience. The specifics of the workshop tasks are outlined
below in their entirety as presented in the workshop.

4 Narrative, Self and Engagement: An Immersive T(r)opical Experience
Figure 3: Emerging Lexicon of terms.
94
WORKSHOP OUTLINE
TASK 1: DRAWING US...
Take a piece of paper and put it on your head. In the next
30 seconds, turn to the person next to you, and leaving
the paper on your head, start drawing a little portrait of
the person next to you in the middle of your page. Try to
draw it without lifting the pen off the paper. Ok now you
are going to give the portrait to that person.
This first task is designed to warm up the room, break the curse
of the blank page and to break down any fear of good or bad
drawing. It also demonstrates the power of assumptions and
just how inaccurate and misleading they can be whilst placing
the participant at the centre of the story, bringing them into
direct relationship with the ideas that are about to be shared.
Figure 3 outlines the key pieces of scholarship to our
architectural pedagogical approach. On the right, are values
put forward by Maori academic Linda Tuhiwai Smith in her
seminal book Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and
Indigenous Peoples.14 On the left are some emerging values
that include themes and ideas from a range of sources.
Some come from the 2018 Venice Biennale themed around
‘Freespace’15 and the fundamental humanitarian role of
architecture to support daily life. This list acts as a starting
point as is constantly evolving through our practice. As an
emerging lexicon together, these values focus on concepts and
terms that borrow from fields describing continually changing
complex systems. Architecture as evolving and changing with
culture in opposition to memorialising a static system.
TASK 2: DRAWING YOUR STORY...
Now that your portrait has been done for you by your
peer and you have been introduced to key values. Please
spend the next 5 minutes drawing your story on the page
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
LESS TALK | MORE ACTION: Conscious Shifts in Architectural Education 5
in front of you. Something to accompany your portrait.
95
Rather than just described yourselves by your jobs or your
status, we want you to step back and draw the people,
events or places around you and how this influences
where you are now and how you got to be in this room
today. We would like you to try and identify your own key
values in that story. Maybe they are in the list provided,
maybe not. Please work these into your story map.
This understanding of your own story and how this influences
your values and positioning of others is important. it’s what
make us feel safe and comfortable. This are qualities that makes
us human. This task acts as a self-reflection on the spaces of
engagement that have impacted participants trajectories, and
a questioning of certain crucial life events and how they have
impacted their being.
Bhabha calls this third space, a liminal space where meaning
where the negotiation of difference creates a tension peculiar
to borderline existences.16 Your being and ways of knowing
are the outcomes of disruptions, to you, your ancestors, your
neighbours, to your landscapes. Delueze and Guattari describe
an intermezzo17 an in-between that is outside binaries, this
is your truth. We are in constant flux, in movement through
space and time, always discovering something about and
reflecting on our own identities.
Your being and ways of knowing are the outcomes of
disruptions, to you, your ancestors, your neighbours, to your
landscapes. Delueze and Guattari describe an intermezzo an
in-between that is outside dualisms, this is your truth. We
are in constant flux, in movement through space and time,
always discovering something about and reflecting on our
own identities.
TASK 3: SHARING YOUR STORY..
We now want you to turn to the person next to you and
Figure 4: Walking down the street facilitates a unique exploration of the
spend a minute each sharing your stories. Starting from housing typology within community, image: Anna Ewald-Rice

6 Narrative, Self and Engagement: An Immersive T(r)opical Experience
96
Figure 5. Using drawing as a tool for exploring values,
image: Anna Ewald-Rice
being in the room here today, try and find points where
your stories diverge or overlap? The spaces of engagement
may emerge as the zones in-between cultures.
As professional practitioners, it is critical to respectfully
engage in this mutual two-way learning process at a basic
human level, exclude the excessive jargon and technical
understandings that can dominate and therefore take control
of the information and the language.
We try to educate students on why it is important to
acknowledge and understand the interface of cultures that
exist within our society. The cultural interface describes:
“Spaces constituted by points of intersecting trajectories
and dynamic relations of time, place, distance, knowledge
traditions and politics all composed of different people
with different histories, experiences, languages, agendas,
aspirations and responses.” 18
- Martin Nakata, Disciplining the Savages, Savaging
the Disciplines
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
Figure 6. Students experiencing housing conditions first hand, image:
Anna Ewald-Rice
From this understanding, the question arises, How do we
facilitate immersive and experiential inquiries that centre this
dialogue in the architectural studio environment?
Our method encourages students to engage the narratives of
self within these interstitial spaces. In order to demonstrate
this process of engagement with self and associated values, we
explore immersive environments, centring our investigations
around housing and notions of the home. A home is a basic
humanitarian need and it links people across the world. All
cultures unite for the need for shelter and refuge.
TASK 4: DRAWING YOUR HOME...
What you are each going to do is draw your home in
your own community. This can be your home now, or
a home that you had in the past. Maybe even a home
of a family member you might have spent some time
with recently. Think about that space? We want you to
draw a quick sketch, can be plan, section, diagram at
any scale illustrating the key components that make
up your home, a dining room, kitchen, bedroom, couch
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
LESS TALK | MORE ACTION: Conscious Shifts in Architectural Education
Figure 7. Students speaking with construction and housing providers
in community about the delivery process, image: Anna Ewald-Rice
table. Focus on how your values identified in your story
map, contribute to this space? How do they present in
your home? Demonstrate these values in your drawing.
Beyond shelter and refuge, what makes this home yours?
Please place your drawing on the table. You will now pick
one that you like that isn’t your own and tell the table what
you think is a particular value present in the drawing. What
does it say about their lifestyle and who they are? What
are some ideas that you think are driving each drawing?
This experience of participants having someone else interpret
values from their drawings in front of them, offers the
opportunity for new unforeseen values to emerge beyond
‘typical’ requirements of a house. This method uses the clarity
of insight generated from having distance from a situation and
facilitates qualitative analysis between peers. Exploring the
qualities that these intrinsic values gives the home translates
this cultural understanding and awareness of the other’
into built form.
7
97
“for me, big windows lets me see out to a far horizon
because it gives me a sense of distance so valued in
dense city living.”
– Participants quote
The next layer of the workshop is about facilitating immersive
and experiential inquiries that centre this dialogue in the
design process that is relevant to the architectural studio brief.
TASK 5: EXPANDING YOUR HOME...
We now want you to adapt your home drawing to
accommodate you and you nearest and dearest 15
family members. Brother sisters, parents, grandparents,
children, nieces and nephews. The previous task
instructed you to reflect on your own experiences. Now
you are being asked to accommodate a new hypothetical
experience, the lives of 15 of your family with divergent
needs, into a single home.
This kind of living is the reality of the ‘home’ in many Indigenous
communities across Australia. The one size fits all government
housing model delivers fundamentally inadequate and
culturally inappropriate solutions with devastating national
health, education, and wellbeing implications.

8 Narrative, Self and Engagement: An Immersive T(r)opical Experience
Figure 8. One of the authors supervising on site as students experi-
ence the local tropical environmental conditions, image: Anna
Ewald-Rice
98
The following extracts from a local government submission
paper19 on Yarrabah reports the situation. Yarrabah is 45
minutes drive from Cairns, a national tourist gateway to
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Yarrabah consists of 4,000
people living in 365 houses, a situation that is a crisis and
challenging to alleviate. Stories include the following:
‘…applicant lives with mother/mother in-law in a four
bedroom home which is overcrowded with 16 people,
ten children and 6 adults. Applicant and family of 8
were camping on the beach in a tent and tired of being
homeless moving from family to family’
‘Applicant’s living situation causes stress, leading to
arguments which is not healthy when working full-time’
‘Applicant suffers from a chronic respiratory condition
and the constant damp and overcrowding in their house
is causing his respiratory symptoms to increase, thus his
health is deteriorating’
This task encourages participants to challenge their
assumptions around the qualities of architecture and immerse
themselves into socially inequitable issues. Architecture
is a means to assist and facilitate the rights of Indigenous
peoples through sustained and innovative approaches to
include and empower lesser heard voices. This architectural
educational exercise connects and contextualises seemingly
disparate worldviews of the student and the community
with a measured and emotional leap of faith to enable rich,
previously unknown expressions for exchange.
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
To aid participants in this complex process of using their own
values to expand the accommodation of their home to include
15 family members, we encourage students to develop a set
of design principles. This kit of parts activates their chosen
value across a range of different aspects and scales of the
design and weave its qualities together through the design.
CONCLUSION
This paper is a reference tool for educators who wish to expand
their design studio learning environments, sensitive to the
values of marginalised cultures and communities. It outlines
a workshop methodology that embeds cultural differences
and acceptance into design studio thinking. It aims highlight
the complexities of acknowledging and understanding the
interface of cultures that exist within our society.
As a means to activate future thinking in this space, the word
lexicon promotes values, qualities and themes that imply soft
edges and fluidity around meanings, acknowledges overlaps,
interpretation and translation. Single or combined words
can be continually overlaid onto for students to reflect upon
your own narratives and those of others. This morphing
adds to its meaning and becomes a part of the process of
drawing these themes together in the design process to
familiarise design contexts for greater understanding. The
workshop instructs students to start with their own story and
richness of experiences. It is critical for them to recognize the
commonalities and tensions between their own lives and the
lives of others. Creating and extending a zone of continuous
negotiation between binary norms opens new emergent
possibilities for architecture to privilege lower visibility issues,
and to advocate and champion change for a better future.
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
LESS TALK | MORE ACTION: Conscious Shifts in Architectural Education 9
99
ENDNOTES
1. Daniele Hromek in Kiddle, Rebecca, Stewart, Luugigyoo Patrick, and O’Brien,
Kevin. Our Voices : Indigeneity and Architecture First edition. San Francisco Bay
Area: ORO Editions, 2018 : 205. Hromek describes Country as‘everything within
the landscape; land, water and sky, and soars high into the atmosphere, deep
into the planet crust and far into the oceans. Country – which incorporates
ground, space, site, environment – is aesthetic, environmental, landscape
and terrain … cultural connection to Country encompasses narratives and
knowledges, incorporating traditions, practices and art, linked to identity,
language and community’
2. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – The Right
to Adequate Housing
3. Venturi, Robert. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture 2nd ed. London:
Architectural Press, 1977.
4. Lockwood, Matthew. To Begin the World over Again How the American
Revolution Devastated the Globe New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019
5. Great Southern Land is a colonial reference to the Australian continent.
6. Deleuze, Gilles, and Guattari, Félix. A Thousand Plateaus : Capitalism and
Schizophrenia Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987 : 479
7. Muecke, Stephen. Textual Spaces : Aboriginality and Cultural Studies Rev. ed.
Perth, W.A: API Network, Australian Research Institute, Curtin University of
Technology, 2004 : 72-75
8. Janet McGaw and Anoma Pieris, Assembling the Centre Architecture for
Indigenous Cultures : Australia and Beyond New York: Routledge, 2015 : 20
9. Bearn, Gordon. “Differentiating Derrida and Deleuze.” Continental Philosophy
Review 33, no. 4 (October 2000): 441–465
10. Kuku Yalanji is the Australian Aboriginal tribe located north of Cairns,
Queensland Australia. A person claims ancestry to place by stating it as part
of one’s being.
11. The name Erica derived from Banksia Ericifolia, the native wildflowers that
grow on the headland on Cammeraygal Country
12. Cammeraygal Country is on the northern edge of Sydney Harbour in Australia.
It is directly connected to the Pacific Ocean
13. Michael Mossman in Kiddle, Rebecca, Stewart, Luugigyoo Patrick, and O’Brien,
Kevin. Our Voices : Indigeneity and Architecture First edition. San Francisco Bay
Area: ORO Editions, 2018 : 205
14. Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies Research and Indigenous
People, 1999 : 142-162. See Chapter 8 for an extensive list of ‘projects’. The
objective of each ‘project’ is to frame thinking of particular issues relative to
Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing.
15. Attiwill, Suzie, and di Venezia, La Biennale. “Freespace: The 2018 Venice
Architecture Biennale.” Artichoke, no. 65 (2018): 97–100.
16. Homi Bhabha Location of Culture, 1994 : 312
17. Deleuze, Gilles, and Guattari, Félix. A Thousand Plateaus : Capitalism and
Schizophrenia Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987
18. Nakata, Martin N. Disciplining the Savages, Savaging the Disciplines : 323
19. Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council Submission to the Queensland Productivity
Commission, 2017 : pp39-42
 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

100 3. 4. 101

BEYOND THE BEYOND THE

FUNCTIONAL: FUNCTIONAL:
CULTURALLY CULTURALLY
RESPONSIVE DESIGN RESPONSIVE DESIGN
IN PRACTICE & IN PRACTICE &
THEORY, WORKSHOP THEORY, ARTICLE

Australian Museums and PNYX, June 21, 2019, ISSUE 68.

Galleries Association, National The Architecture Association
Conference: At the Centre, School of Architecture’s
Our peoples, our places, our fortnightly journal.
practices. 2019.
This article was based on a workshop by
the same title which was presented at a
This workshop explored how to create
conference in Alice Springs in May 2019
culturally responsive environments which
(see photos).
can in turn become places of learning
and active cultural practice.

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

102 103

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series


104 5.
HOW TO...
Printed booklet, A5 bound
document.
oDeveloped to accompany the
pocketguide, the ‘How To‘ is a small
pocket sized booklet which expands
some of the themes in the poster and
encourages the facilitator to explore
allied concepts and ideas. This should be
read by the facilitator before beginning
the session. It can also be used to record
relevant architectural examples that
might be referenced throughout the
conversation.
Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series
Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community
6. 105
POCKETGUIDE
Printed poster, A2 or larger.
The printed poster outlines a
conversation framework for discussing
and recording information on as it is
brought up. It is large enough for the
participants to see and contribute too
and be drawn on by many people and HOW TO...
record comments , observations and
concerns. It is intended that a new one is
used per conversation.
 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

The role of this project is THINK ABOUT:

to develop a tool which -The consultation is about talking with not talking at, allowing space
for answers. Think about attitude of working with, drawing with,
encourages qualitative talking with, walking with.

notions of generosity - How you are going to meet people?

- How you are going to have these conversations and where?
and thoughtfulness to Can people focus?
Is it shaded? I
be embedded in the Is it quiet?
architectural design brief - Consider using the poster to draw peoples responses on. Write
from early stages so as down peoples comments using their own words so that they can see.

106 to stand the best possible - Explain to people what you are going to do with this material and
when they will hear back to follow up. 107

chance of being present in - Try and remember peoples names (stickers)

the building.
- Bring something to the consultation to share: lamingtons, tea, biscuits
are all great for sharing.

- Provide textas and markers for people to draw themselves and

plenty of paper.

WHEN SHORT ON TIME:

If consultation time is pressing, the following two questions could
loosely touch on much of the content in this guide:
- What are some things that make this building good
for you? Why?
- Can you tell me if there some things that you think
could be better? Why?

Asking ‘why’ reveals the intention behind the statement. Allow for it to
be hard to answer as it requires un-packing.You may need to go over
it a number of times.

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

- COMFORTABLE
- SAFE
- SECURE
ALSO CONSIDER:

KEY QUESTIONS:
108 109

Does this building help you feel comfortable? Why?

Does this building help you feel safe and secure? Why?

ASSOCIATED FREESPACE NOTIONS: BUILDING EXPRESSIONS:

-Value -Everyday
-Belonging -Wellbeing
-Caring -Human

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

- ABLE TO BE ONESELF
- RESPECTED
- VALUED
ALSO CONSIDER:

KEY QUESTIONS:
110 111
Does the building help you feel respected? Why?

Does this building help you feel valued? Why?

Can you be yourself in this building? Why?

BUILDING EXPRESSIONS:
ASSOCIATED FREESPACE NOTIONS:

-Dignity -Valued
-Human -Belonging
-Everyday

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

- LIKE YOU BELONG

- INCLUDED

ALSO CONSIDER:

KEY QUESTIONS:
112 113
Do you feel included in this building? Why?

Do you feel like everyone is included? Why?

Do you feel that this building belongs to this community? Why?

BUILDING EXPRESSIONS:
ASSOCIATED FREESPACE NOTIONS:

-Of The Place -Claimed -Social

-Valued -Symbiotic -Collaborative
-Used -Exchange

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

- PARTICIPATING
- ENGAGE WITH

ALSO CONSIDER:

KEY QUESTIONS:
114 115
How do you connect with this building? Why?

Is there anything about this building that invites you to participate?

Why?

Do you participate in using this building? Why?

BUILDING EXPRESSIONS:
ASSOCIATED FREESPACE NOTIONS:

-Permeable -Layered -Emergent

-Perifieric -Fluidity
-Liminal -Flux

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

- INSPIRED
- ABLE TO QUESTION
- POSITIVE
ALSO CONSIDER:

116 KEY QUESTIONS: 117

Does this building help you feel inspired? Why?

Is there something about this building that encourages you to

question? Why?

BUILDING EXPRESSIONS:
ASSOCIATED FREESPACE NOTIONS:

-Playful -Experimental -Reactive

-Atmospherical -Vibrant -Changeable
-Positive -Transformable -Temporary

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

A SENSE OF:
- GENEROSITY
- WELCOMING
ALSO CONSIDER:

KEY QUESTIONS:
118 119

What is the vibe/sense/atmosphere around this building? Why?

Does this building come across as being generous? Why?

Do you feel welcome here? Why?

Does the building feel welcoming? Why?

BUILDING EXPRESSIONS:
ASSOCIATED FREESPACE NOTIONS:

-Intended gifts -Additional

-Unintended gifts -Future use

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

FREESPACE NOTIONS: ‘FREESPACE’ MANIFESTO...

These notions are derived from research into multiple exhibits,
pavilions and writings that formed a part of the 2018 Venice FREESPACE describes a generosity of spirit and a sense of humanity at the
Architecture Biennale. core of architecture’s agenda, focusing on the quality of space itself.

FREESPACE focuses on architecture’s ability to provide free and additional

spatial gifts to those who use it and on its ability to address the unspoken
wishes of strangers.

FREESPACE celebrates architecture’s capacity to find additional and

unexpected generosity in each project - even within the most private,
defensive, exclusive or commercially restricted conditions.
CARING PARTICIPATORY INCLUSIVE
FREESPACE provides the opportunity to emphasis nature’s free gifts of
120 light - sunlight and moonlight, air, gravity, materials - natural and man-made 121
SOCIAL HUMAN NARRATIVE
resources.
COLLABORATIVE EMERGENT TEMPORARY FREESPACE encourages reviewing ways of thinking, new ways of seeing the
world, of inventing solutions where architecture provides for the well being
POSITIVE COMFORT PERFORMATIVE and dignity of each citizen of this fragile planet.

ATMOSPHERICAL TRANSFORMABLE VIBRANT FREESPACE can be a space for opportunity, a democratic space, un-
programmed and free for uses not yet conceived. There is an exchange
EVERYDAY PERIFERIC LIMINAL between people and buildings that happens, even if not intended or
designed, so buildings themselves find ways of sharing and engaging with
SYMBIOTIC PLAYFUL FLUIDITY people over time, long after the architect has left the scene. Architecture
has an active as well as a passive life.
GENEROSITY UNFINISHED BELONGING FREESPACE encompasses freedom to imagine, the free space of time and
memory, binding past, present and future together, building on inherited
PERMEABLE FLUX LAYERED cultural layers, weaving the archaic with the contemporary.
-Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara,
REACTIVE EXPERIMENTAL CREATIVE curators of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of
La Biennale di Venezia (May 26th to November 25th 2018).

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

“Becoming”, Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2018,

curated by Atxu Amann.
This pavilion was a key influence as it uses 52 words,
generated through open source, to addresses the future
of architecture.

k
an
bl
ft
le
122 123

lly
na
n tio
te
in
ge
Guide prepared as part

pa
of a 2018 Byera Hadley
Travelling Scholarship by:

is
th
Anna Ewald-Rice
www.annaewaldrice.com

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

A Sense Of: - Comfortable

- Generosity - Safe
- Welcoming - Secure

?
124 125

- Inspired
- Able To Question Is there something
- Positive
about this building
which helps you feel.... - Respected
- Valued
- Able To Be Oneself

- Included
- Like You Belong

- Like Participating
- Engaged

Developed by Anna Ewald-Rice, Byera Hadley Traveling Scholarship, 2019

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

COMMUNITY: NAME: BUILDING: DATE:
 Pocket Possibilities : ‘Freespace’ in Community

8 9 10
Acknowledgments About the author References
Anna Ewald-Rice

126 I would like to acknowledge all of the people Anna’s engagement with architecture involves • Abdilla, A., Designing with Indigenous Communities, Social • Memmott, P., “Aboriginal Signs and Architectural Meanings” 127
Design Sydney Talks, UTS, 24.04.18 Architectural Theory Review 1 (1997) pp. 38-64.
who have made this journey possible. My the weaving together of a number of different • Attiwill,S., La Biennale. “Freespace: The 2018 Venice • Memmott, P., “Gunyah, Goondie + Wurley: The Aboriginal
networks of support now stretch far and strands: architectural design and practice, Architecture Biennale.” Artichoke, no. 65 (2018): 97–100. Architecture of Australia”, UQP, 2007, pg 214
wide across the country and beyond. These connecting with Indigenous knowledge both • Bearn, G., “Differentiating Derrida and Deleuze.” Continental • Memmott, P., Long, S., ‘Place theory and place maintenance
Philosophy Review 33, no. 4 (October 2000): 441–465 in Indigenous Australia’, Aboriginal Environments Research
range from my friends, teachers, peers, in projects, in theory and through working
• Bird Rose,D., “Nourishing Terrains: Australian Aboriginal Centre, University of Queensland published in Urban Policy and
mentors, employers and especially members with remote area communities, working at Views of Landscape and Wilderness”, Australian Heritage Research, Vol.20, pg.39-56, 2002
of the many communities that I visited along the interface of the Arts and Architecture, Commission, 1996 • Memmott, P., Long, S., “The Significance of Indigenous
the way. teaching in the design studio, and an interest • Douglas, W., “Illustrated Topical Dictionary of the Western Place Knowledge to Australian Cultural Heritage” Indigenous
Desert Language : based on the Ngaanyatjarra dialect”, Law Bulletin, vol 4 no 16 (1998) pp. 9-13.
in wider global humanitarian issues facilitated Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Edith Cowan • Meriima Design Unit website, http://www.spatialagency.net/
I would especially like to acknowledge the through scholarship supported travel. University, 1977, 2001. database/merrima.
support and encouragement of my family in Underpinning these is a commitment to and a • Dovey, K., “Architecture for Aborigines” Architecture • Mills, D., Brown, P., “Art and Wellbeing”, Australia Council
Australia vol 85 no 4 (July- August 1996) For The Arts, 2004, Pg 99
particular Sue Rice, who has led me to see love of drawing as a means to understand and • Farrell, Y., McNamara,S. FREESPACE Manifesto, • Mossman, M., in Kiddle, R., Stewart, P., and O’Brien, K.,
the joy of learning through new and by no as a means of expression. Venice Biennale, 2018, http://www.labiennale.org/en/ Our Voices : Indigeneity and Architecture First edition. San
means straight forward projects. architecture/2018/introduction Francisco Bay Area: ORO Editions, 2018 : 205
• Gammage, B., “The Biggest Estate on Earth: how • Muecke. S., Textual Spaces : Aboriginality and Cultural
Anna completed her Masters of Architecture
Aborigines made Australia”, Allen & Unwin, 2011 Studies Rev. ed. Perth, W.A: API Network, Australian Research
In no particlar order: at the University of Sydney in 2018, being • Gija Total Health http://www.kimberleysociety.org/images/ Institute, Curtin University of Technology, 2004 : 72-75
University of Sydney’s nominee for the kimbsoc---alochirupu.pdf • Nakata, Martin N. Disciplining the Savages, Savaging the
Australian Institute of Architects 2019 NSW • Greenway, J., “Reflections on Indigenous Placemaking” Disciplines : 323
Architecture Australia, 28 Apr, 2015 • O’Brien,K., “Aboriginality And Architecture: Built Projects
Todd Sidery Marni Reti Jimmy Graduate Medal, with a number of projects • Gothe, J, Designing with Indigenous communities, Social by Merrima and Unbuilt Projects on Mer”, MPhil Thesis, School
Michael Fiona Young China focusing on cultural and community buildings design sydney talks, UTS, 24.04.18 of Geography, Planning and Architecture, The University of
Mossman Eleanor Perez Martha
Doug Natalia Krysiak Poppy
within the public realm. Her graduation • Hromek, D., in Kiddle, R., Stewart, L., and O’Brien, K., Queensland, 2006, pg 1
Our Voices : Indigeneity and Architecture First edition. San • Pascoe,B., Dark Emu, Scribe Publications, 2014
Hammersly Tiana-Jane Nat project, an honors studio under Michael Francisco Bay Area: ORO Editions, 2018 : 205. • Pelusey, J., And Pelusey, M. (2006), Life In Indigenous
Michael Tawa Furner Elise Tawa was developed in response to working • Lochert, M., “Mediating Aboriginal Architecture” Transition Communities. Warmun, East Kimberley, Western Australia,
Michael Muir Lewis Evans Jerry with the remote Indigenous community of 54-55 (1997) pp. 8-19 Macmillian Education Australia, Melbourne.
Rose Davies Erica Izett Alex Warburton in WA and their request for a • Mahood, K., The Seething Landscape in “Songlines: • Tawa, M., “Place, Country, Chorography: Towards A
Kevin O’Brien Georgina B Dave Tracking The Seven Sisters” / edited by Margo Neale. pg 32, Kinesthetic And Narrative Practice Of Place”,Architectural
new Youth Artspace. This ongoing project 2017 Theory Review, 7:2, 2002 , pg 45-58,
Joel Spring Mary Jane Natalie
Silvano Giordano Anna Mcleod Gloria is currently awaiting government grant • Massola, C., (2012). Jarragbu-nungu warrambany flood in • Tawa, M., Thoerising the Project: A Thematic Approach to
funding approval. She was awarded the Ethel Warmun. Artlink, 32(4), 23. Architectural Design, Cambridge scholars publishing, 2011
Brett Jennings Stephanie Raj Heather • McDowell, C., (2011). Warmun floods devastate a • Tawa, M., ‘Wilcannia Health Service,’ Architecture Austraha,
Dillon Rusty Peters ...and many M Chettle Prize in Architecture, recognising community and its art. ABC Kimberley. July/August 2002: pp. 70-76.
Kombumerri Lindsay Malay more! application to studies, ability and effort • McGaw, J., Pieris, A., “Assembling the Centre: Architecture • Tuhiwai Smith, L., Decolonizing Methodologies Research
Kim Mahood Judith Inkamala throughout the course of my masters degree. for Indigenous Cultures: Australia and Beyond”, Routledge, 13 and Indigenous People, 1999 : 142-162.
David Kaunitz French George Nov. 2014

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

128
Registration
Architects

Board
NSW

Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarships Journal Series

A A publication of the NSW Architects Registration Board 2020
architects.nsw.gov.au